The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1
by Alkeni
Summary: Armed with the power of the Iron Coin, Xander Harris is now in a position to see what Fate has in store for his friends. With the ability and motivation to change the future, Xander Harris sets out to do just that. The only question is: Is change always for the better? Xander-Centric with a Xander/Cordelia Pairing. Set During BtVS Season 3.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** No, it's not mine. Anything to do with BtVS belongs to Joss et al., I'm just playing around with his toys.

And a thank you to Starway Man, my beta. Any mistakes are mind

**Author Notes 1: **This story can be read alone, but to truly understand the background you should read my earlier one-shot fic, "The Iron Coin of the Jester". That way you can properly understand the Iron Coin, how Xander got it, and what exactly it does.

**Author Notes 2: **Since each chapter will be termed an 'Episode', the prologue is being termed a 'Trailer'

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Trailer: An Agent of Chaos

There are some things which the human mind simply cannot comprehend.

After all; humans think in rather simple terms, in the grand scheme of things. Apart from a few physicists and mathematicians, whose thought processes are a tiny bit more advanced than that of the rest of the herd, human beings live in a world containing just three dimensions – and how boring is _that_? They live in a world where causes create effects, and effects have causes. A world where a circle has only 360 degrees, and there are some angles that just can't exist. A world where the arrow of time points in only one direction. A world where, not all that long ago, the Earth had been considered a flat plane supported by an infinite tower of tortoises.

In summary, then, humans just don't have the mental capacity to process things on a level that would truly serve them well.

The best description any human could come up with, upon seeing the section of twenty-three dimensional super-space which the sideways being known as 'The Jester' spent most of its...well, 'time' was the wrong word, but it was the closest for a human mind to grasp the concept...was as if they were seeing the gaming floor of a casino. Card tables, craps tables, slot machines, roulette wheels, and more. Imagine the Tropicana Resort & Casino located on the Las Vegas strip in all its glory, but add in at least three extra dimensions, and you'd start to get an idea of what sort of environment we're talking about.

The Jester stood at one of the tables, dealing out blackjack hands as if playing with several other people. The Jester seemed to be wearing formal clothes – a black suit, black dress pants, a white dress shirt, a solid blue tie. Tan skin, black hair. Solid blue, pupilless eyes, like blue tunnels staring out of his skull; or better yet, like the Fremen out of that novel-slash-movie called _Dune_. One of The Jester's more hilarious pranks, to be sure.

Suddenly, The Jester straightened up, as if hearing something. Not that 'hearing' was really the right word either. Nor did 'straightened' and 'up' really apply either, within twenty-three dimensional super-space. But since it was the closest approximation a human mind can understand, it will be so described.

"Can't I have some privacy without the forces of Fate intruding on me?" The Jester demanded, staring at its companion in annoyance. A human looking at this scene would describe the new arrival as having appeared from seemingly nowhere, and: male, middle- to advanced-age, wearing long, flowing black robes. Hair gray and long and an even longer beard, just as gray. Clasped to his chest was a heavy book, the cover made of what seemed like iron, the pages made of what seemed like gold. When this being deigned to appear before humans, it was often known as the Librarian of Fate.

"Have you no sense of decency!?" The Librarian demanded. "Is there no line you and your brethren among Chaos will not cross to wreak havoc?"

"Oh, come now!" The Jester protested. "What is it that's gotten you into such a fit this time? It _is_ our job to screw around with your plans, you know."

"Yes, but this time you have gone _too far_!" The Librarian insisted. "There are _rules_ about this sort of thing!"

"Remember to whom you are speaking. There are no rules; seriously, you sound just like a human!" The Jester replied, chortling. "There are only whims. My whims. Your whims. The whims of the Forces of Fate. The whims of the Forces of Chaos. I do what my whims dictate."

"You gave your Iron Coin to Alexander Harris!" The Librarian said, appalled. "Do you even realize the damage which he will now cause!?"

"Well, of course I do." The Jester said with a smile. "I've seen the plans you and yours have for him and his friends. And just so you know; if I was him, and had only the limited capacity for understanding that humans do, I'd be _pissed_. I think we both know that if Harris were to find out your plans, he'd want to kill every single one of you."

"What the mortal wants is irrelevant. All that matters is that you take back the Iron Coin, at once!" The Librarian commanded.

"No. Because now, Harris has the ability to find out what you're planning. And of course...the motivation to do something about it. And maybe, one day, cause chaos the likes of which me and mine can only dream." The Jester appeared to smirk. "Have fun trying to contain all the damage he'll do to your plans." And then The Jester vanished, the gaming room vanishing with him; leaving The Librarian fuming in a featureless void.

Such is the nature of twenty-three dimensional super-space.

**Author's Note:** And with this, the Iron Coin Chronicles truly begin. Coming soon, Episode 1: Sometimes You Can't Go Back, and Episode 2: And Sometimes You Can.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** NOT MINE

Thanks to my beta, Starway Man

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 1: Sometimes You Can't Go Back...

**July 11th, 1998**

**17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale**

When Xander woke, his first thought was: _Not my usual nightmare..._

He was a male teenager who often had nightmares, after all. Not always: at seventeen years old, he had his fair share of sex dreams as well, thanks to all the hormones his developing body produced. But over the past two years, the bad dreams had definitely outnumbered the good. Ever since he'd found out the truth about the world – that vampires and demons were real, and that his town was built upon the Mouth of Hell – and he'd had to stake his best friend...

Xander Harris didn't always have nightmares about the things he'd seen, read about, heard about, or could just plain imagine. But they were often enough.

But last night...that had to be the weirdest dream...well, no, not the weirdest, he considered. But definitely strange. That guy, the coin, and all that stuff about Fate, and Chaos... _Where does my subconscious come up with this stuff?_ _Maybe Cordy was right, and I __**do**__ read too many comic books!_

It was then that Xander noticed that his right hand was clenched into a fist...and that it was clenched around something. Something he was holding in his hand. He sat up in bed and opened his hand. There was a coin in there. A familiar-looking one, at that.

Slowly, his hand shaking slightly, Xander raised his hand and looked at the coin closely, his other hand reaching down to pinch himself on the leg. It hurt. _Oww! Yeah, okay, definitely not dreaming. _He examined the coin more closely. It was definitely made of iron...

And it looked exactly like the coin that was given to him in the dream. Given to him by that guy...thing...The Jester, he'd called himself.

_So...it wasn't a dream. Oh, **holy crap! **_

Xander yelped as he thought that. If the coin was real...and if the Jester had given him this coin...then presumably, everything else the man...person...thing...whatever had told him, was also true. Or at least, the Jester had actually told him those things. He might not have been telling the truth, though. Or at least, not the _whole_ truth. After the past two years, Harris had developed a healthy understanding about powerful super-beings having their own agenda, which might or might not coincide with the best interests of humanity.

But...the coin did have the power to tell him what Fate had planned for people...to let him know what was coming. In the dream...no, damn it, late last night...he'd flipped the coin, saying Buffy's name...and the images had immediately appeared in his head. And then...what? Had he simply fallen asleep? No...no, Xander remembered how excited he'd been, wanting to rush off straightaway to find his hero, to drag the Slayer back to Sunnydale kicking and screaming if he had to, but then...

What had happened? He didn't remember. To the young man's consternation, there was just a big blank in his memory between receiving the vision conferred by the Iron Coin and waking up just now. Xander didn't understand, but figured all that could wait until later. Right now, there was the vision the Iron Coin had granted him to think about.

The vision had contained unclear, disjointed images, all of them jumbled together with no rhyme or reason, or so it had seemed. A diner, with Buffy waitressing there. The Los Angeles skyline – not that Xander understood how he knew that it was the City of Angels skyline he was seeing, given he had never set foot in that city...a pool of liquid which looked like black tar of some sort...teenagers roughly his own age, some older, some younger, being shoved into the churning black filth by some guy...that same guy, taking off his face like it was a mask, revealing a demonic face beneath...Buffy, standing before another demon, smiling and saying, "I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer. And you are...?"

Unclear and disjointed images, as said. And even though the images hadn't showed it, Xander somehow knew the name and address of the diner where Buffy was working. It was known as Helen's Kitchen.

Which meant...it was time to go and bring Buffy home to Sunnydale.

Xander's first thought, his initial plan was that he would get dressed, run over to Willow's house, wake her up and tell her the good news. Then he'd call Oz's house, and tell him too. Then do the same for Giles...then they'd tell Buffy's mom. He'd call Cordy and tell her as well. And then, they'd all go to Los Angeles and bring Buffy back home where she belonged.

Except...it just wasn't that simple, was it? Plus...

Part of Xander was still sore, a little, about everything that had happened since Angel had lost his soul, and even more so about Buffy abandoning them all and running away like that. Granted, Xander knew how there was a chance that Angel's soul had been restored at the last moment, since Willow had cast that soul curse and afterwards she'd been certain that it had worked. Xander hadn't said anything then, (a) not to hurt Willow's feelings in case she was wrong and (b) he didn't want to answer questions on whether he'd told Buffy the truth about what Willow had been planning to do.

The cold, harsh truth was that he'd lied to Buffy, for a number of reasons. One, because he'd believed the odds were that Willow would fail to pull off the spell, being straight out of coma and all. And two, Xander had known that if he told her the truth that morning, Buffy would have tried to stall and wait for the curse to take effect...she would have fought less than her absolute best, and probably gotten killed by Angelus or his minions. And with the fate of the entire world at stake, Xander Harris had _**no intention**_ of letting the Slayer risk six billion lives just to get her damned boyfriend back.

The events of the summer so far had given him some hindsight, though. When he found out that Joyce had told Buffy that if she left, she shouldn't bother coming back...

Whilst he'd been waiting for his broken arm to heal, Xander had done a lot of thinking. He'd acknowledged to himself that he'd moved past his previous feelings for Buffy, mostly, in a 'more-than-friends' sense anyway...because being used as a stripper pole was one thing. Being used as a stripper pole to make an undead guy jealous? Xander didn't have a lot of self-respect, but there was a line for such things, and Buffy had definitely crossed it that night. And...he had Cordelia now. She was...

Harris smiled a little, as he thought of the sharp-tongued Queen of Sunnydale High. It was strange, when you thought about it...but nowadays, Xander liked her. A lot. Well, certain parts of her anyway. The parts that regularly featured in his sex dreams, for example.

Xander quickly got his thoughts back on track before he spent the next half-hour thinking about his girlfriend, and drooling like an idiot.

He was halfway through getting dressed when he realized that there was a major flaw in his little plan. He remembered another thing that the Jester had told him. He couldn't tell anyone. What was it that he'd said? Oh yea...

_Secondly, you won't be able to tell anyone – and I mean anyone – about the coin, or what it's shown you. Words, sign language, writing it down, signal flags – whatever the hell you try. It won't work. If you could just tell people it would be way too easy._

Well shit.

Xander decided, though, that he wanted to test that. First he finished dressing, then he looked around his room for some paper and a pen, and found both quickly enough. He started to write what was intended to be a letter for Giles. He touched pen to paper...and the pen half-exploded in his hand, covering it and the paper in liquid ink.

"Okay..." Xander said softly. "I get the message." He was about to get up to wash his hand, but the ink started to move, slowly...forming letters on the page. Not that odd, in and of itself, for the Hellmouth...but still. Xander watched, part of him telling him to just throw the Iron Coin as far away as he could, as the liquid formed into words on the paper.

_The Jester says 'nice try'. And next time, it won't be just your hand that gets covered in ink._

_-The Hydra_

Xander blinked, then read it again. _Alright then,_ _I guess that Jester guy __**was**__ telling the truth. __Damn! _The youth made a mental note to look into this 'Hydra' as well. Since he'd already resolved to try and research the Jester, and the whole Fate v.s. Chaos issue that he'd talked about. If he was going to mess around with Fate, then he wanted to know everything he could about his opponent.

And, damn it all, he couldn't just ask Giles for help researching the thing. Okay, he _**could**_, but the G-man would ask why he was looking into the matter, and if he knew Giles at all the British man wouldn't accept "Just because" as an answer. And from the looks of his little experiment just now, he wouldn't be able to tell the Watcher the truth. That left researching it himself, which would be...difficult.

Oh, sure, Xander knew he wasn't an idiot, but he simply wasn't Willow- or Giles-level smart when it came to the book stuff. Helping with research over the last two years had allowed some things to stick, and some things to sink in, but still; Xander knew he wasn't going to have an easy time of it researching all by his lonesome-ness. He could only read English, after all, plus a few bits and pieces of Spanish; given he had taken the mandatory class for two years before ditching it as fast as he could.

And unfortunately, all the really good stuff was in Latin, or even worse, Sumerian or Egyptian. Yeesh, those two were written in runes and hieroglyphs, not individual letters he could try to translate with a dictionary of some sort. And forget about trying to translate any weirdo demon languages, some of which didn't even look like anything which a human mind could recognize as writing.

Xander sighed and went into the bathroom to wash his hands, still thinking. He needed to research the Jester _and sweet mamalooshin, did that guy __**have**__ to style himself as a clown of some sort?_, plus find out more information about this so-called Hydra guy. And it would take too damned long, if he had to do it on his own. Especially since his time was not unlimited, what with patrol and everything else.

Well, maybe he could start off by learning another language. Probably Latin. There, at least, he could probably get some help from Giles. Pointers at least. He could easily explain wanting to learn Latin as a desire to be able to help out more with the research, be more useful in the grand scheme of things. Something which was true regardless of the Jester situation, actually.

Nonetheless, Xander knew he couldn't put off getting to Buffy and using the Iron Coin to help his friends until he'd figured everything out. The Jester had mentioned three points in time where he'd messed up Fate's plans. Reviving Buffy. Helping her with the Judge by getting that rocket launcher. Lying to her about what Willow had said...

Yeah, no doubt about it; Buffy had been destined to die. Twice, possibly three times, judging from what the Jester had said. And he'd screwed up what Fate had had in mind each time.

_Well, good. _If there was some grand cosmic plan where he and his friends were sacrificed like pawns on a chessboard, then he wanted nothing to do with what Fate was planning in the future. He was damn well going to change what Fate had in mind, if he could; or if he believed that what was coming needed to be stopped, or changed. _What was it they said in the Terminator movies? Oh yeah, the future is not set; there is no fate but that which we make for ourselves..._

"Damn right. Screw Destiny!" Harris said softly, turning off the sink and drying his hands.

Xander started to make a mental list of the things he needed to do, if he was truly going to make something out of the Jester's gift. He looked at the Iron Coin again for a moment. Harris suddenly realized that he had to make sure he didn't lose the coin as well; the odds were someone Up There wouldn't like him wrecking their plans, whatever plans those were which Fate had had in mind, and so sooner or later he might be targeted and a demon or whatever sent to steal it. Ah well, just one other thing to worry about and add to the laundry list of things to do.

Shrugging, Xander stuck it into his jeans pocket for now. Probably not the most secure place in the world, but he needed to be able to access it easily for now. Whatever, he'd figure something out later.

Next thing. He opened his desk drawer and lifted the false bottom he'd put in years ago – it hadn't been that hard, overall, and he'd gotten the idea on a whim after watching a spy movie when he was twelve. It wasn't that good a false bottom, but since the only people it needed to fool was his parents, who spent most of their time drunk or hungover – or both – it didn't need to be sophisticated. He kept whatever money had had – summer jobs, finding it, gifts from the handful of relatives who weren't human failures, things like that – hidden there, so his parents wouldn't drink it up like they did with basically all the money they already had.

Working a summer job by day whilst trying to kill vampires in Buffy's place at nights was, perhaps, not his best ever idea – it was the main reason why Xander wasn't getting enough sleep – but the money was damn well going to come in useful now. He'd been saving up for years, on and off, as best he could. He'd had this idea, since middle school, of doing a Jack Kerouac-style road trip kind of thing; driving off to see all fifty states. Well, the ones he could drive to, anyway; Hawaii would definitely be tricky. Once he'd graduated high school and all that.

These days, though...well, Xander knew that he might end up doing it, and he might not. It depended, he supposed, on a lot of things. Like, for example, how much a bus ticket to Los Angeles would set him back. But first, he needed to see if he could get started on the researching. At least get some kind of idea. Maybe.

He wouldn't go to Giles. Not yet, anyway. First he'd go to that occult store Willow had gone to a few times, after Giles had mentioned it in passing earlier in the summer. _Uncle Bob's Magic Cabinet_. Its ownership tended to change pretty quickly, apparently. More than one owner of the store had been killed by the things that lived in Sunnydale. Xander checked the clock on his bedside table. Too early to go and see what he could find out yet, no way any store would open this early on a Saturday.

So he went out and jogged for a while, came back, took a shower and changed into a clean set of clothes. Xander then made a mental note to do his laundry soon. He could hardly trust his mom to be sober enough to do it, not at this time of the month. She barely remembered to go shopping for groceries once every two weeks or so. Xander sighed to himself, grabbed his money, and walked to the magic store.

Fortunately, the place was open when he arrived. "Blessed be. How can I help you?" The owner, a woman, asked with a practised-looking smile.

"Where do you keep the real books?" Xander asked as he walked in. He was the only customer at the moment.

"Excuse me?" The owner, a woman, asked.

"The real books. The ones that actually have stuff about magic and demons and all that fun stuff that is real, rather than just gimmicky stuff you put in books to sell to the tourists." Then, "I'm a friend of Willow's so I know you have them."

The woman nodded slowly. "Then you're Xander? She's mentioned you once or twice." She pointed up to the loft area, connected to the store by a ladder. "I keep the real stuff up there. What are you looking for?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure." Xander told a half-truth there. "I'll know it when I see it though, hopefully." He went over to the ladder and climbed up it quickly enough, heading for the books that were stored here on the upper level.

He spent about forty-five minutes looking, but to no avail. Confined to the books written in English for the moment, Xander simply didn't have that much to work with. None of the books he'd skimmed through had what he was looking for. Besides – practically all of them were written in that old medieval English style which guys like Shakespeare and Chaucer wrote in, which made them unnecessarily hard for a modern So-Cal boy like him to understand. It reminded him of English Lit. class, all over again. _Ugh._

Giving up, Xander went back down to the main floor. He handed the woman a ten-dollar note, which he didn't have to do, since he wasn't buying anything; but then she'd didn't have to let him browse through the books without buying something.

"Thanks anyway." Harris said simply.

"Not a problem." The store owner replied. "Willow's a good customer, and a good person at that."

"She is that." Xander agreed, then left the store. Well, there went that idea. What next? Well, obviously, it had to be Buffy. Which meant a trip to L.A. He couldn't just leave Sunnydale without telling someone where he was going, though – that was not a good idea in the slightest. He'd tell Giles. Well, he'd tell the man _something_, anyway.

And thus, some time later, he was knocking on Giles' door. After a minute or so, the Watcher opened the door. "Xander?" Giles asked. "What are you doing here?" He was, as he always seemed to be, cleaning his glasses.

"Hey, G-man, what's up?" Xander asked. "I have a question for you. Mind if I come in?" Even though it was broad daylight, Giles just stepped aside silently. None of the Scoobies ever gave verbal invitations to anyone anymore. Survival instinct made habit, Willow had called it.

"How many times have I told you not to call me – oh, never mind." Not the first time Giles had said that, and far from the last, for that matter, Xander guessed. Since he wasn't going to stop calling him G-man anytime soon. "What question were you – Xander, what are you doing?"

Xander had retrieved a pad of paper and a pen from the pile of assorted books and was sketching something. Specifically the demon he had seen take off its human-seeming face in the images shown to him by the coin. Which were still just as vivid as when he'd actually seen them. It wasn't that good of a sketch – an artist he was not. He tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to Giles. "Have you ever seen a demon that looks like this? Or something close?"

Giles took the paper and examined the sketch closely, putting his glasses back on. "Xander, this is hardly that much to work on. No offense, but the image is...well, barely mediocre."

"I know." Xander replied. "Just – try. Think. Does _**anything**_ come to mind?"

Giles shook his head. "No. I mean, of course, I can consult my books, but even with this as a starting point, it might take a while to-" Giles abruptly lowered the paper and looked at Xander, brows furrowed. Something seemed...well, strange, about the boy. No...not strange, exactly. Off...perhaps different...but not quite... "What exactly is this about, Xander?" Giles asked pointedly.

"I can't tell you." Xander replied quickly.

"Xander." Giles almost glared at him. "I'm in no mood for games."

"This isn't a game. I literally cannot tell you." Xander replied. "Buffy is in L.A."

That distracted Giles from the picture, which dropped to rest on the ground at his feet. "What? How do you know? I've checked in L.A. Had the Council check in L.A. Where in L.A. is she?"

"I can't tell you." Xander replied quickly.

"Xander." Giles almost glared at him. "Don't try to make jokes, as I'm in no mood for games!"

"This isn't a game, or a joke. I literally cannot tell you." Xander replied. "What I can tell you, though, is that Buffy is in L.A."

That immediately distracted Giles from the picture, which fell to the ground at his feet. "What? How on earth do you know that? I've checked in Los Angeles. Given that was where Buffy was born and raised for the first sixteen years of her life, that was first place I checked! I – wait. Where in L.A. is she?"

"How do I know that? I can't tell you. Seriously, I can't tell you, Giles." Xander replied firmly. "God knows I wish I could. Here, let me show you what I mean." Then he looked up towards the ceiling. "By the way, if you're watching us right now? Please spare me the whole exploding pen thing, on account of this is purely for demonstration purposes!"

Xander put pen to paper, and started to write 'Iron Coin'. The pen was suddenly out of ink. "Two seconds ago, there was plenty of ink in this pen. I mean you know that, right? Seriously Giles, you saw me draw that sketch!"

"Well, err, yes..." Giles blinked, trying to wrap his mind around that.

Shrugging, Xander grabbed a pencil, and started to write. The pencil immediately snapped in two. Another pen jammed up, a second pencil was suddenly hollow, as if the lead had just fallen out. "See what I mean? I can't tell you how I know what I know. Not won't; _**can't**_. I don't even want to think about what might happen to me if I tried to actually tell you in words. Seriously, when I tried to write it down earlier, the pen exploded on me! Still, FYI, I know where Buffy is, and I'm going to get on a bus to L.A. and bring her back here, as soon as possible."

Initially, Giles was at a complete loss for words. "Xander, what the devil is going on?!" He asked after a moment. "Are you under a, a magical geas of some sort?"

"I can't tell you!" Xander said again, looking annoyed. "And for the record, I have no idea what a geas actually is." Half-true. "Frankly, Giles, all this kinda scares the crap out of me." Very true. "But like I said, Buffy is in L.A. I know where she is, and I know that _that_ demon," Harris pointed to the sketch he'd made, "Is involved. And while I'd like nothing better than for you to drive me to the big city, I need you to research something called The Jester."

"Something called what?" Giles asked, confused.

"The Jester."

"Xander, I see your lips moving, but you're not actually saying anything."

_Damn!_ Xander thought in annoyance. "Yes I am, I mean I heard myself say it. Obviously, even telling you his name falls under the 'not allowed to tell anyone anything' part of the spiel I got."

Giles stared at the Slayerette carefully, processing that. "What, um, what exactly is stopping you from telling me?"

"I have no idea. All I know is I just can't. Words, writing, sign language, signal flags, whatever." Harris rattled off the list that the Jester had used last night. "Probably some kind of magic, but don't ask me what kind. 'Cause I haven't got a clue."

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered to himself in Mycenaean Greek, thinking aloud without being overheard – or at least, understood – by Xander. He had no idea what to think concerning all this. His initial reaction was to think that Xander was playing some kind of trick on him; but if it was a joke of some sort; it had long since passed the point of being funny. Besides, if there was one thing the boy didn't joke about, it was Buffy's whereabouts. Nonetheless, if all this was on the level, Giles simply could not believe that whoever had imparted said knowledge to the boy would go to such Byzantine lengths to keep their identity a secret. What on earth would be the point?

Still. This was the Hellmouth; Giles had long since learned that nothing was ever truly as it seemed around here, and to expect the unexpected – and moreover, to expect the unexpectable

Xander seemed completely sincere and earnest in his...belief...that Buffy was in Los Angeles, and that he knew where she was in that city of several million people. And sincere and earnest in his inability to communicate exactly how he knew these things. The...demonstration with the pens and pencils just now was at least somewhat convincing, though hardly conclusive, of his claim.

"I take it you trust your informant?" Giles eventually asked, deciding to focus on the more practical aspects of the situation.

Xander shook his head. "Giles, all I can tell you is that Buffy is there. And she needs to be here. The vamps and demons are out there killing people every night, and we need a Slayer to do what we mere mortals can't! Besides; we're her friends, her family. And she's not going to get over what happened with Dead Boy by losing herself in that damn city! She needs to know that we want her back, and that we care."

Giles frowned. "And how do you propose to get to Los Angeles? You mentioned before, that you didn't want me to drive you there..."

"Bus ticket. That's my next stop after I leave here." Xander picked up the sketch. "I guess what I need from you right now is to find out more about this demon. It's important. Why, I'm not sure. But I _**know **_it is. I'll call you from a pay phone once I'm in L.A., to see if there's anything you've found out."

"Well, if I can't talk you out of this, and you need me to research this creature for you – then be careful." Giles replied. "The Los Angeles night-life, as it were, may not be quite like it is here on the Hellmouth...but in some ways, it's even more dangerous from what I've heard." He set down the sketch and on the pad, wrote down an address, and then a word, 'Caritas'. He tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to Xander. "There's a place I've heard of, called Caritas. It's some kind of demon bar or nightclub, but nonetheless it's a sanctuary for all, from what I've heard. No one can be hurt or killed while they're in there."

Xander looked at the paper, then folded it and put it in his pocket – not the one that had the Iron Coin. He nodded. "Thank you." Then, he said, softly. "I thought about asking her to come along, but then I realized there's nothing she could do or say to convince Buffy to come home that I can't. So please, don't tell Willow about...this..."

"Thing you can't tell me anything about?" Giles asked, raising an eyebrow, almost bemused despite himself. "What exactly would I tell her?"

Xander smirked a little at that. "Thanks, G-man." He headed for the door as Giles spluttered a moment.

"Xander!" He exclaimed, only half seriously. "Stop calling me that!"

Xander turned around a moment, still smiling, then left.

**July 11th, 1998**

**Helen's Kitchen, Los Angeles**

The bus ride from L.A. had been...tense. Xander had kept rehearsing the conversation he was going to have with Buffy...and now, finally, he had the opportunity to talk to her. Granted, Giles still hadn't identified the demon, but Xander hadn't been able to wait any longer at the depot; the sun was just starting to set outside. Xander watched as Buffy, wearing a waitress uniform, picked up two plates – burgers and fries – and carried them over to a table, where she set them before two tough-looking guys.

"Anything else?" Buffy asked them, looking bored.

"That'll do us, Peaches." One of them said, leering at the Slayer's voluptuous body.

_Peaches ? What the hell? Is this guy still living in the Eighties or what?_ Was Xander's initial reaction. _I mean, really!? Does he think that works?_ He shook his head and watched. To his surprise, Buffy just tore their bill off her pad and set it on the table.

"You can pay at the counter."

"Sure you don't want me to work it off for you?" The same guy said crudely, his friend laughing just as crudely at that. Buffy ignored him and walked past the table – on her way to his table, Xander realized. The man suddenly reached out and grabbed her ass for a moment. The two jerks laughed again as Buffy stood stock still, stiff as an iron rod for a moment, then continued on as if nothing had happened.

Xander was shocked; he'd half-expected Buffy to tear that guy's arm off and beat him to death with it. Well, okay, maybe not anything that extreme, especially not in public, but still...back in Sunnydale, she'd have at least punched his lights out. _God...she has changed... _

Buffy reached his table, and took out the pad, ready to write down his order. She hadn't actually noticed who it was she was serving yet. "What can I get you?" the Slayer asked, looking down at her pad.

Xander looked up at her. "Well, for starters, I'd like one of my two best friends back." Harris said softly.

Buffy nearly dropped the pad when she saw him. Immediately, she took a half step back. "_Xander!?_" She half-hissed. "What – how did you – what the hell are you doing here?!"

"Looking for you, of course." Xander replied. He leaned forward a little, towards her. "Why do you _**think**_I'm here? Buffy-"

"No-no...no." Buffy cut him off, backing away. "No. Just go away." She turned around and headed towards the back of the diner. She had a quick, quiet conversation with another waitress, handed her her pad, took off her apron, and hurried out of the diner. Xander immediately got up and followed her out.

"Buffy!" Harris called after her. "Wait!" But Buffy started to walk faster, crossing the street, not quite running yet. Thus, Xander had no choice but to run after her. "Buffy, stop!" He called again.

Buffy turned down onto another street, and Xander followed after her. She finally turned around and stopped after he called her name a third time. "Why are you doing this?! God damn it, Xander, why are you here?!" Buffy demanded.

"I'm here because you're my friend. I'm here because we need you. I'm here because people are dying every night in Sunnydale, after you ran away and left us to fend for ourselves. And I'm here because you hiding after what happened with Angelus and Acathla isn't good for you!"

"What the hell would _**you**_ know about it, Xander!?" Buffy demanded, stepping a pace closer to him. "You weren't there...you didn't have to...it wasn't Angelus that I sent to Hell that day! It was Angel. He was back!" She paused a moment. "But it was too late...Acathla had opened his mouth...Angel's blood was the only way to save the world. So I killed him! I had to shove a sword through his chest and send the man I loved to Hell!" She was almost yelling by that point. "And _**don't **_tell me you're sorry Angel's gone! We both know you're not!"

_So...I was wrong, Willow's spell did work._ Xander felt a little remorse for his actions, but not much. Despite Willow's actions, he still believed telling Buffy the Big Lie had been the right thing to do. The fact that the world was still here... "You're right, I'm not sorry about what happened to your undead boyfriend. I'm sorry how all that totally upsets you, sure, but I'm not going to mourn Angel's death; not after all the people that died because of his psycho alter ego, and because I'm not that much of a hypocrite. I haven't been since I killed my best friend, after Jesse became a soulless blood-sucking monster that tried to kill both me and Cordelia! Look, Buffy, you did what you had to in order to save the world. And maybe you needed to get away for a while, after you did that. But now it's time to come home."

"I can't!" She insisted. "My mom said-"

"She said don't ever come back if you walk out that door, right?" Xander interrupted. "I know, she told me. But do you really, honestly, think she meant it? Think about it, Buffy. Your mother loves you! She's been worried out of her mind about you, all summer! God knows I'd kill to have a mom like yours. She's been beating herself up all this time, over what she said. And God, Buffy, look me in the eye and tell me you think you actually belong _**here**_! Just my opinion, but you don't belong in what's clearly the ass-end of L.A., working in some sleazy diner. Seriously, what happened back there? The Buffy Summers I knew would never have let a guy grab her ass like that. I mean, you just acted like it never happened?"

"I'm not the Buffy you knew!" Buffy responded, actually yelling this time. "I can't do it! Being a Slayer...its not-"

"Bullshit!" Xander cut her off fiercely. He walked a step towards her, and took her hand. "Buffy, listen to me. You are the bravest person I've ever met, and not because you fight vampires and demons and all the other monsters out there – though yes, that's part of it – but because you keep doing it. Night after night, you kept going out there to fight them, and then you went to school the next day, and kept trying to have a normal life...and even after everything that happened back in May, you're still sane? Hell, half the time I think I might be going crazy. But not you. Deep down, you're still the same girl I knew. You're Buffy Summers. You're the Slayer, and you're my friend."

Buffy tore her hand from his grip. Not that he'd been holding her hand that tightly. "No! Damn you, Xander, you don't understand...everything...that happened..."

Xander nodded. "You're right. I don't understand. I wasn't there, and yea, I staked the closest thing I had to a brother, but it's not the same situation as you were in. I get that. But lemme ask you something, Buffy; are you happy here? Is this really helping? Has running away made it hurt any less?"

"I can forget all the pain." _Mostly_... Buffy sighed. "For a while, anyway."

"Yeah, and that's my point exactly. Buffy, you're the Slayer, and you can't forget that. I mean you can try, but you'll fail. You left the Hellmouth and you came back to L.A. You think you can hide here forever, all by yourself? You think the Council won't catch up with you, sooner or later? God damn it, Buffy, I don't want you to die if those people suddenly decide that you're a liability to the cause! And if not them, then some vampire or demon that wants to become the big man by killing the Slayer! If you just keeping hiding like this, when the fact that you're the Slayer finally catches up with you, I don't think you're going to live through it."

Then an idea occurred to Xander, and he thought back to what he'd seen...the images still vivid in his mind. He reached out and took her hand again, pulling the Slayer back down the street. "Come on." Harris said. "There's something I need to show you. If this doesn't convince you-"

Buffy once again tore her hand from his grip. "I told you, I'm not the Slayer anymore. I quit! I resigned! I'm _**done**_ with all that!"

Xander turned to face her. "Buffy. Please. Just follow me. You're still the Buffy I knew – I know. You don't just fight demons, and vampires and save the world out of duty, or for yourself. You do it because it's the right thing to do. Because you're helping people. And right now, there are people here in L.A. that need your help. They need you to save them."

"Xander, what are you talking about? I can't-"

"_Please_, Buffy." He paused. "Look, just let me show you what I'm talking about; and then if you don't have a problem with it, if you can't bring yourself to help those people, well, what the hell. You can leave, and I'll fight them by myself. Afterwards if I live, which is pretty unlikely, I'll go home, forget that I ever found you, and leave you to all..." Xander gestured to the dismal neighborhood surroundings, "this. I'll leave you alone to wallow in your despair, if that's what you really want."

Slowly, Buffy nodded. She didn't say anything. Xander turned and led her to the second area he'd seen from the visions. That place with the black tar-like liquid, and the demon who took off his face. Peeled it off, more, now that Xander thought about it. The Family Home. He'd canvassed the place earlier, before heading off to the diner. Xander wasn't sure what the demon was doing with the runaways and homeless and lost souls that he was passing out the fliers to, or who came into his 'homeless shelter'. But he would bet everything he owned and then some that it wasn't to 'fill the empty place in their souls', or anything that was good for the people involved.

The alley that held the entrance to the 'Family Home' had the guy standing outside it, holding the fliers. Xander walked up to the guy, Buffy following behind him. There was a frown on the Chosen One's face, as her Slayer-sense suddenly went crazy.

"Excuse me? I've got a question for you." Harris said politely. Then without waiting for a response, he reached over and grabbed 'Ken's' forehead; and immediately, Xander started pulling, hard. There was a strange...vaguely squishing noise, and then the face started to move, peeling off. "How long does it take you to glue this thing on?" With another hard pull, the entire thing started to slide right off, and then Xander pulled it away from the demon's face completely.

The demon face underneath was a weird sickly-brown color, and it looked almost as if parts of the skin were cut away to reveal the muscle underneath, or something. It looked humanoid...but it was all the more disturbing for that fact its real inhumanity was obvious as well.

"My face!" The demon grabbed the front of Xander's shirt and lifted him into the air, mad fury in its eyes. "You _tore off_ my face! Do you have _any idea_ how hard it is-"

"No." Xander interrupted, resisting the urge to cry out in fear, which was growing stronger by the second. "I don't know how hard it is to put that thing on. That's kind of why I asked -"

Xander's speech was interrupted when he was suddenly dropped to the ground. He looked up from his position, ass flat on the sidewalk, groaning in pain, to see Buffy and the demon fighting. And Buffy was definitely kicking ass.

"Go Buffy," Harris said, gritting his teeth, then groaning again. He picked himself up. Nothing seemed to be broken, thank God. "Wait! Don't kill him just yet, Buff. He's been bringing homeless people – teenagers mostly – into that place. And I don't think it's to offer them tea and scones, or whatever."

Buffy stopped whaling on the demon for a moment and picked _him_ up by the front of his shirt. "Okay, let's do the whole Q&A thing. What are you doing with them?" She demanded. Oddly, Buffy felt...almost like herself again. Not quite...but... she recycled a line she'd used a few months ago. "Start talking, before I make you wear your ribcage as a hat!"

"I won't tell you any-" Buffy punched 'Ken' in the gut with her free hand. Hard. "Alright!" The demon said with a groan. He started to talk – although Buffy had to 'encourage' him to continue every other sentence or so.

The whole sordid scheme soon came out; 'Ken' was taking people who wouldn't be missed to another dimension, a demon world where time passed much faster than here on Earth. The enslaved humans worked and worked and worked until they were too old to be productive anymore, and then they were shoved back into this world to die of old age. Barely a day would pass here, but a century there. Perfect little scheme, from a certain point of view.

Buffy threw the demon into the wall, and beat him up some more, before finally killing him. _Asshole!_

Xander followed Buffy in as she handled two more demons – also wearing human masks – and then they came into another room...which had a pool of what looked like black tar, just like Harris had seen from the vision the Iron Coin had conferred.

"Wait here." Buffy said, grabbing a heavy candlestick, after blowing out the candle and tossing it aside. "I'm going to go in and get those people out of there."

"Hang on a second, Buff. What do we know about how many enemies you'll be facing down there, all alone? And, uh, does that mean what I think it means?" Xander asked softly.

Buffy nodded. "I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I'm back."

**Next Episode of The Iron Coin Chronicles Season 1: **...And Sometimes You Can. Coming (eventually) to a computer near you. I won't promise 'soon'. But I hope for soonish.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I own the Jester, the Librarian, and The Iron Coin, along with other things you don't recognize from the original.

**Author's Note: **Its a short 'Episode', yes, I will grant. But that's in part because there is less to tell. This is Xander's story, not Buffy's or anyone else's, so there will rarely be POV scenes from anyone but Xander. The original 'Buffy comes home' episode manages to be as long as it is primarily because it throws in the zombie-mask subplot. That isn't applicable here because Buffy comes home months earlier than in-show, so Joyce hasn't gotten the shipment Nigerian art to begin with.

Huge thanks to Starway for his work beta-reading the chapter, and his writing of the entire second part, minus the changes I made to it. My serious writer's block on that part would have kept this chapter from coming out for a while.

And, as always, any mistakes you see are mine.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 2: ...And Sometimes You Can

**July 11th, 1998**

**Outside 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale**

The bus journey back to Sunnydale took just as long as the original trip to the City of Angels had taken, and by the time Xander and Buffy arrived back on the Hellmouth, it was long past sundown. Still, as far as Harris was concerned, that didn't really matter; as long as the Slayer was back home where she belonged, it didn't matter what the hell time they'd gotten here.

It had been an 'interesting' day. After they had discovered that pool of black tar, or whatever the hell it was, Xander had persuaded Buffy to help him find some real weapons – and then they had come up with a plan of sorts. Namely, that the Chosen One would enter the portal and if she wasn't out within five minutes, he would come in after her after calling Giles. Buffy hadn't liked the idea of calling her Watcher, not even as a backup plan, but she'd had to admit – better that than spending the rest of her life trying in vain to get back home. Anyway, as far as Xander was concerned Buffy had been in that...demon dimension for only a few seconds, at most – really, it was more the blink of an eye between when she went in and when he was helping pull people out of the portal/pool.

But from what Buffy's point of view, it had been several hours down there. Hours spent sneaking around, battling against demons and rescuing the human slaves. By the time she'd jumped out and the black tar portal had vanished, Buffy had been exhausted. Fortunately, she'd been too swept up in events to ask Xander again – and this time, actually demand an answer – about how he'd known exactly where to find her in L.A. Or ask him about how he'd known that Ken was a demon, and that the 'homeless shelter' been taking homeless kids in and turning them into slaves for the rest of their lives.

It had occurred to Xander, while he was feeling relieved about that fact, that he really should think of some feasible answers to those questions. Despite her 'dumb blonde' act – which she had down to a T – Buffy Anne Summers was not an idiot. Not in the least. Xander, personally, had to question her common sense sometimes, granted; but then, that was sort of the pot calling the kettle black, given his own track record in the gray matter department.

_Let's face it, Cordelia and Oz are the only sane ones in the entire group._ Xander considered. And given that Oz was a werewolf, what did that say about the value of Sanity on the Hellmouth? Not much, he had to admit.

Buffy had slept the entire trip back, throughly exhausted. She'd worked nearly a full shift by the time Xander had found her, and then tacked onto that several hours of demon-slaying in a hell dimension with a screwy time stream. Talk about jet lag. _Or maybe dimension lag?_ She only woke back up when Xander said her name softly as the Bus pulled into the station. Another downside of being a slayer. They were light sleepers.

And now they were standing on the sidewalk, in front of Buffy's house. "Well, here we are," Xander said with a gesture. "Home sweet home."

"Xander, I can't-" Buffy started to say, suddenly unsure of herself again.

"Yes, you can." Xander replied softly. "You _**can**_ do this."

"But what if my mom-?"

"Buffy, please don't start with the self-pity party again, and _**think**_ for a minute! Does your mother love you?"

Buffy nodded slowly. "Yeah, she does..." Then she said it again with more certainty, "She does."

"So, even if she told you never to come back if you walked out that door two months ago, do you _**really**_ think your mom is just gonna slam the front door in your face, as soon as she sees you standing on the porch?"

"I...no..."

"Then what the heck are you waiting for? Go. Do that whole "I missed you so much" dealie with your mother," Xander ordered the young woman. "Because I know for a fact she's missed you too. Put the poor woman out of her misery, already!"

Buffy took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, steeling herself. "Okay." She took another breath. "Alright, I can do this. I can...thanks for everything, Xander, but I think I can handle it alone from here."

"Good." Xander nodded as well. "Look, I'll go tell Giles and the others that you're back. It's too late for a Scooby Gang meeting now, and besides; your mom will want you all to herself for the rest of the night, I'm sure. Willow might stop by your house anyway, later, but what say we all meet up at Giles's place; tomorrow afternoon, maybe?"

"Sure." Buffy agreed. Then she frowned, staring at her friend. "You gonna be okay getting to Giles's condo from here? I mean, I could escort you..."

"I'll be fine. I'm Cross and Stake Guy, see?" Xander displayed his weapons to the Chosen One. "Never leave home without 'em! Now go on and do the big family reunion thing. It's way past time."

"Right." Buffy quickly took a third deep breath and walked up to the front door of her house, and knocked.

Not wanting to intrude on a private moment, Xander turned and left as Buffy knocked, heading for Giles's apartment.

He paused mid-step about halfway there, a thought occurring to him. He completed his step, made sure he still had a cross around his neck, and his emergency stake easy at hand – it _was_ Sunnydale at night – and stopped to think.

He would have to use the Iron Coin again, eventually. Right now was as good a moment as any. The Jester had told him that he would only be able to use the Iron Coin to see a few months ahead of time. Which meant, logically, that he would have to flip for his friends every few months – probably once a month or so, just to be safe. Unless, of course, he screwed up Fate's plans recently, at which point getting a quick glimpse ahead would be a fine idea.

He flipped the coin. "Buffy Summers." He caught it. There had not been a single image in his head.

He flipped it again. "Buffy Summers." Nothing.

Flip ."Willow Rosenberg." Nothing.

Flip. "Daniel Osbourne." Nothing.

Flip. "Rupert Giles." Nada, zip, zilch.

One last flip. "Joyce Summers." And still, there was just a big, huge, steaming pile of a whole-lot of nothing.

For a few moments, he felt..._panic ?_ rising within him. Had the coin stopped working? Was it suddenly defective? Then he remembered:

_Fate doesn't determine everything in everyone's life. I'll give you an analogy you **should** be able to follow. Imagine your life as a book. Now, for most people – like yourself and the vast majority of you humans, you book is entirely blank. You and the people around you – friends, family, enemies, random people on the street – all write it yourselves. But others, people Fate has deemed important to their plans, well, they can have entire chapters, or just scenes, or maybe even just individual lines written into their books. Their lives. Not everything is decided, but some things are. Most of the time, even for the most written-in people, free will is the overriding thing. Just...not always._

Like the images from when he'd flipped the coin that night, that whole conversation seemed burned into his memory. But what did it mean? That his friends' fates were currently in limbo, because of his actions? Had the act of bringing Buffy home at this point in time been enough to screw Fate's plans up completely? If so, Xander didn't know how he felt about that.

He looked at the coin closely for a moment, then slipped it back into his pocket. He wondered idly what would happen if he showed the object to Giles, or used it around someone, if that would qualify as 'telling'. It probably would, and so Xander didn't want to take chances on the consequences of such actions.

He reached Giles' condo and knocked on the front door of Apartment B. Giles opened up within less than a minute. "Ah, Xander. Is Buffy-?"

"She's back, and she's fine. Physically, anyway, bar bruises from the demons she took out, but that's nothing new for her. And I think her brains in a much better place now too." He smiled, then entered the apartment. Giles closed it behind him. "The Slayer is back."

"That...that is good. She's with her mother, I take it?"

Xander nodded. "She was really broken up, what with her mom telling her to never come back. Personally, I think Buffy was stupid to believe Mrs. S when she said-"

"Considering all the events that had happened leading up to that, I would argue that while what she did was foolish, and hasty, its perfectly understandable. And, so is what Joyce said to her, even if she was also foolish and hasty to say such to her daughter."

Xander sighed. "Maybe you're right...no...no, you are." He conceded. "Still, she shouldn't have..." He sighed again. "The main reason I came by now wasn't just to tell you that Buffy is here, though. I'm also here because we need to work out a cover story."

"Cover story? I'm afraid I don't follow."

"Hey, we need an explanation as to how I knew about where to find Buffy, and about those demons at the 'homeless shelter'." He quickly went over everything that had happened in Los Angeles, from finding Buffy at the restaurant to the encounter with 'Ken' at the 'Family Home'.

Giles looked confused. "Why can't you just tell her what you told me?"

"Tell her what, exactly? Like you said earlier today, I didn't really tell you much of anything. Any honest answer I try to give her wouldn't exactly qualify as an answer at all! And you know what Buffy's like, Giles; she won't be satisfied with an 'I can't tell you.' No way, no how! To be honest, I'm a little surprised that I was able to tell _you_ as much as I did, now that I think about it."

Giles turned off his glasses and started to clean them. "So you are proposing to lie to her? And to Willow, and Oz, and even Cordelia?"

"Well...when you put it like that..." He trailed off, then shrugged helplessly. "Kind of, yes." He looked at the man who had been his pseudo father-figure for the last year and change. "You can't tell me you don't see why I think that's the best idea for all concerned. Especially given what we're dealing with!"

Giles put his glasses back on. "No, I can't tell you that. And I see your point. Though I do wish we could find out more about the geas you seem to be under, and how to correct it. But, yes given how...whatever is going on is intrinsically tied up with you...you're the expert, as it were."

"Now there's a frightening thought. Me, an expert at anything but Twinkies?" He smiled, then his expression grew more serious. "Anyway, so, what is a cover story that Buffy might accept, do ya think?"

"Well, err, just off the top of my head – the Watchers Council sent someone to Los Angeles to look for Buffy, and they found her, but the field operative had a rare moment of intelligent insight that it would be better if a friend approached her, rather than a stranger whose intentions and motivations were completely unknown to her."

Xander nodded. "Make sense. Even has the advantage of being half-true. I mean, you _**did**_get the Council to send people down there before now, didn't you?"

"Yes...and I did tell them not to approach Buffy themselves if they spotted her. Though I don't know if they would have listened, had those people actually found her..." Giles added. "And as for the demon, I could always say that he – that it – was also something the Watcher reported to me about, and I mentioned it to you in passing after deciding to send you to bring Buffy home."

Xander nodded. "That does make sense." He nodded again. "And if the Buffster asks, I can say that I scoped out the situation before I found her in that diner. Which is also true enough...in a way."

"Very well. You'll be, uh, bringing Buffy here tomorrow, then?" Giles asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon. All the gang'll be here, Giles. We'll see you then." Xander quickly said his goodbyes, and then vanished out the door. It was late, and he had to head off home and get a good night's sleep. He suspected that he would need it for the meeting tomorrow.

**July 12th, 1998**

**Outside 523B Oak Park Street, Sunnydale**

Xander stood on the street alongside Willow, Oz and Cordelia as they waited for Buffy to show up. It was Sunday afternoon, and so the street was more or less deserted.

"She's late." Cordelia said sharply, and not for the first time. The cheerleader looked utterly bored waiting for Buffy to show up, and there was only so many times she could examine her nails for any blemishes and imperfections.

"Buffy will be here." Willow replied faithfully. "I spoke with her on the phone last night **and **this morning, she promised me that she'd show up!"

"Fine. I'm just saying, she's late. And quite frankly, I've got other things - much better, more important things - which I could be doing right now," Cordy riposted.

"Example?" Oz asked in short, non-committal way.

"Well, I need to get organized and pack for the Chase family vacation, for starters. You think if I'm not there to supervise her, the maid will actually remember to include everything I need for spending six weeks in Mexico? Ha! I don't _**think**_ so," Cordelia said imperiously.

Willow turned to face Xander. "So, now that Buffy's back...are you gonna be going with Cordelia and her family, or-?"

"Nah. Way too late now," Xander shrugged. "Besides, I get the feeling that Cordy's mom and dad don't like me too much."

"Hey!" The Chase girl said in annoyance. "So what if they're not exactly happy how I'm dating a known loser with few, if any prospects? You're not in a relationship with them, you're in a relationship with **me**! And Cordelia Chase dates whoever the hell she wants to date!"

Despite her tone, Xander wasn't bothered. It was just the way she was, and it was, in its own way, a compliment. "And approximately 65% of that was actually a compliment. Gotta be a new record," Xander wisecracked, before his girlfriend gave him a smack on the chest and he yelped in pain.

"Been there, man. Willow's dad didn't seem to like me much the one time we met, either." Oz said in his usual calm, laid-back manner. "Mentioned that if I turned his little girl into a groupie, he'd give me an in-depth course about the theory and practice of circumcision. Using a pair of pruning shears."

"OZ!" Willow yelped, looking horrified.

"Ouch," Xander nodded sympathetically.

"Hey, look! Isn't that Mrs. Summers' Jeep?" Cordelia pointed with her chin, pointedly ignoring the male antics.

Indeed it was. The car swiftly pulled over in front of the Scooby Gang, before Joyce and Buffy got out. "Hey," the Slayer greeted her friends.

"BUFFY!" Willow immediately ran over and gave her best friend a big hug. "Oh, I'msogladyou'resafeweallmissedyousomuchan dIdon'tknowwheretostartabout-"

"Okay, Will, breathe!" Buffy looked amused that the beloved Willow-babble hadn't changed, even if some other things had. She stepped back and said, "Hey, you cut your hair. The new style...looks good on you."

"Well, duh! Because I was the one who picked it out for her!" Cordelia exclaimed, before unleashing her patented megawatt smile. "Welcome home, Buffy. Seriously, I am _**so**_ glad you're back! Because now, my boyfriend won't have to risk his neck fighting the monsters every night after you ran away and left us to do the job for you!"

_And the winner_ _and reigning champion of the Sunnydale Tact Girl Competition, is definitely still_ _Cordelia Chase_... Buffy thought grouchily. All she said though was, "Hi Cordy, long time no see."

"Ditto. Welcome back." Oz said laconically.

"Thanks, Oz. Good to see you too." Buffy replied with genuine warmth.

"So, Mrs. S. Wasn't expecting to see you here today." Xander remarked, ignoring the fact that Buffy hadn't personally greeted him. Not that there was a need, since they'd talked last night. But it stung. Just a tiny amount. "What's the up with that?"

"Well, uh, Buffy and I talked all last night. And since it's, um, been made clear to me that being the Slayer is... is something she can't avoid, no matter how hard she tries, there's nothing I can do but help her as best I can with...all this." Joyce told him hesitantly, gesturing a little helplessly as she spoke. Then her voice firmed up, "And by the way, Xander, I'd also like to know why Mr. Giles sent _**you**_ to Los Angeles yesterday to bring my little girl home. Why on earth didn't he call me? If only to tell me that he'd finally learned where my daughter was?"

"Yeah, uh, I figure you should ask the G-man that question, Mrs. Summers," Xander said hurriedly, seeing everyone staring at him. "I mean, I know what he told me yesterday, you might wanna get that information straight from the horse's mouth..."

Joyce accepted that, and quickly marched to the British man's front door, the teenagers all following behind her. She knocked three times on the door, and when Giles opened up she barged inside without waiting for an invitation. "Mr. Giles, I'd like to have a word with you!"

"Of course, Mrs. Summers, I – Buffy? Oh, thank heaven you're back..." After spying his charge, Giles uncharacteristically gave her a hug, something which Buffy returned wholeheartedly with a huge smile on her face.

"AHEM!" Joyce did not look happy about the impromptu display of affection between the Watcher and the Slayer. As she'd said to the Watcher recently, she wasn't okay with the secret relationship those two had shared behind her back for over eighteen months now. "Mr. Giles?"

"Uh, y-y-yes." Rupert stammered. "Um, my apologies for, err, any unseemly displays of affection, a-as it were."

The adults started to talk about...well, the whole mess. Meanwhile, the five teens went to the couch made themselves comfortable. They listened to Buffy's mother grilling Giles about everything that had happened yesterday, before deciding to focus on their own conversation; on account of the quintet had mostly heard it all before, during various phone calls this morning.

"Hey, so, you're not wanted for murder anymore." Oz told Buffy, deciding to get the ball rolling.

"Good. That was such a drag." the Slayer replied, playing it cool.

"So, I heard you were in L.A. the past six weeks. What, were you living on the streets? Was your house a box or something?" Cordelia asked, eyebrow raised.

"No. I worked as a waitress in a diner, I made enough to keep a real roof over my head." Buffy replied stonily.

"Go Buffy!" Willow jumped in a little too eagerly. After everyone started staring at her, the apprentice witch blushed and stammered, "And I meant that in, in, a-a-a totally friendly and supportive way."

"So what's new around here?" Buffy asked, looking around. "Xander? We didn't exactly get a chance to talk yesterday, I slept the entire bus ride home. What's new with you?"

"Oh, you know, nothing much. Same old, same old," Xander lied, briefly touching the Iron Coin in his jeans pocket.

"Hardly. You've been doing the whole Boy Slayer thing for the past two months! I mean, after Buffy disappeared, someone had to!" Cordelia said tactlessly.

"Thinking maybe this isn't the time for that," Oz commented, after seeing the expression on Buffy's face.

"No...no, we may as well get this over with now. Xander, I'm assuming you've told everyone what I told you in L.A., how the soul curse worked at the last second...but I had to send Angel to Hell anyway?" Buffy asked, looking around at her friends.

"WHAT?" Willow, Oz and Cordelia all exclaimed at the same time.

"Uh, no, Buff," Xander said, looking embarrassed. "Kinda figured that was sorta your thing to tell."

"Oh, Buffy, I'm so sorry," Willow said, with tears appearing in her eyes. "What happened?"

"Angel was cured. Your spell worked at the last minute, Will. It was a hell of a battle and I was just about to take him out, but then...something went through him...and he was Angel again. He-he didn't remember anything that he'd done since my birthday. But i-it was...it was too late, that big hunk o' rock demon was active, and I, I had to shove that sword through Angel's chest. So I, I told him that I loved him...and I kissed him...and then I killed him. He got...swallowed up by that vortex. It sent him...straight to Hell." Buffy seemed to choke on her words and then the waterworks started, as Willow immediately scooted away from Oz to try to comfort her BFF.

Xander felt more than a little guilty watching this display. For a moment, he wondered if he should confess about how he'd lied to Buffy that morning, just outside the abandoned old mansion; but then he decided against it. The only thing that would accomplish would be to make Buffy hate him; possibly Willow too. Besides, Xander still wasn't actually sorry that Angel was finally gone from their lives. He hated how the vampire's loss caused his hero so much agonizing pain, and he regretted the fact Buffy had had to do something which she would doubtless never forgive herself for...

But Xander Harris wasn't sorry about the Big Lie; not if it meant the world had been safeguarded from ending up in Hell, and that there was now one less vampire in it.

"Sorry, I just – I guess I needed to get all that off of my chest," Buffy sniffled, avoiding everyone's expressions.

"Yeah, I can tell. Look, what do you say you, me and Willow go on a shopping trip to the mall tomorrow?" Cordelia suggested, as everyone turned to look at her. "I mean, retail therapy _always_ works for me. And I know buying a few dozen pairs of Jimmy Choo's isn't gonna magically erase the heartbreak...but at least it's a start, right?"

"I, I thought you had to get prepared for your family's...no, never mind. Cordy, that's a _great_ idea!" Willow quickly switched directions on what to say, before starting to gush, "I mean, I-I-I've been thinking of changing my wardrobe lately; 'cause we're gonna be seniors after summer vacation, and, and I don't think my old clothes are gonna cut it after school starts up again in a few months..."

"You know you'll have to talk to Principal Snyder before they'll let you into school again, right? Guy had you expelled," Oz commented to Buffy, actually making an expression for once.

"Yeah, I know. The vindictive little troll actually told me that directly to my face, after I grabbed that knight's sword from the library. Snyder was smiling the whole time, too," Buffy scowled before she sighed. "I figure my mom's gonna make an appointment with His Ugliness, and break his resistance down. Force him to let me back in, by the time summer's over."

"And if the Snyde-man doesn't break?" Xander asked softly.

"I dunno. We'll think of something. Maybe appeal directly to the Mayor, or whatever," Buffy shrugged.

**Next time on The Iron Coin Chronicles:** Season 1,Episode 3. Things start to change, as senior year gets started. What will happen when the forces of Fate and Chaos clash? And what's this about a Nigerian Mask?


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** Don't own.

**Author's Note: **I know in the teaser last chapter I said I'd be dealing with the Mask episode, but I found that there was little to work with in that episode directly related to the Mask part.

In general, if I don't mention an episode where the main thread is unrelated to the arc of the season, assume it happened as laid out in the show, largely.

Thanks to my beta-reader, Starway Man.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 3: Enter Faith

**October 13th, 1998**

**The Bronze, Sunnydale**

_Seriously, Mom, next time you decide to bring art home from the gallery, **check** with Giles first, and make sure it isn't a cursed zombie-raising demon-mask, or whatever!_

Xander briefly smiled as he recalled the words an exasperated and zombie goop-covered Buffy had told her mother last week, following the 'night of the living dead' remake within la Casa del Summers. He wasn't sure _**why **_he was remembering those particular words right now, but nonetheless, he was doing so.

It had been an interesting few months, to be sure. Cordelia had left on her family vacation, not long after Buffy had arrived home. Willow and Oz had pretty much done their own thing, while Joyce had eventually forced Principal Snyder to raise the metaphorical white flag, threatening to go directly to the Mayor after those murder charges against Buffy had been dropped. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the Slayer had been forced to attend summer school as part of the deal struck with the school board to make up for the missed classes and final exams, which had left Xander more or less all by himself for the rest of the summer.

Still, his time had been spent learning what he could; not only about the Iron Coin he now possessed, but also learning Latin with Giles's help. Plus, Xander had tried to raise money for his upcoming road-trip after Graduation, doing odd jobs here and there; and thanks to Buffy's presence in Sunnydale, he'd had a lot more success at that than he otherwise would have, without being distracted about the things that went 'chomp' in the night.

Though, unfortunately, he hadn't really learned that much about the Iron Coin, when you got right down to it.

Still, the summer break had passed fairly quickly, and all too soon the gang's senior year of high school had started up. Xander had taken a certain amount of pride in the fact that once Cordelia had arrived home, there was no issue of them breaking up or going on a break or whatever; his girlfriend had obviously missed him as much as he'd missed her, if their passionate make-out sessions were anything to go by.

And curious historical sidebar, Xander and Cordelia had been making out in the Summers kitchen while Oz, Willow and Buffy had been watching TV, when the zombies had attacked last week; but thanks to Joyce's screams, that particular lip-lock session hadn't lasted too long.

Anyway, back to the here and now. Xander followed Buffy out of the Bronze into the side-alley next to it, Willow, Cordelia and Oz with them as well. He was prepping himself to be surprised, even though he wasn't going to be. He had to look the part, though. The black-haired girl they were out here to 'save' from a sunlight challenged teen would not be needing their help.

Buffy looked around. "Where'd she go?"

She took a few more steps down one part of the alley, looking. Xander made a point of looking like he was looking, as the others actually did some looking.

"I bet its nothing." Cordelia said, unconvinced. "They're probably just making out."

As Buffy came back towards them, they heard a loud, female voice, "Hey!" The owner of the voice seemed to be complaining, or protesting some action. Before they could head towards the noise, the sound of something crashing onto the ground and breaking could be heard.

Deliberately mirroring what he'd seen himself do last night, Xander reached into his coat and pulled out a stake, handing it to Buffy. She looked surprised, but accepted the weapon regardless.

"That's not what making out sounds like." Willow said, then added, softly, "Unless I'm doing it wrong."

The five friends hurried towards the source of the noise, quickly seeing the two people they'd followed out – who, Cordelia, in her ever so colorful way, had dubbed 'Slut-o-Rama' and 'Disco Dave'. The guy had the girl pinned against the wall.

"Stop struggling." The vampire demanded. "This won't hurt a bit." _Yeah __right_. Xander thought to himself, amused. _Bonus points for unknowing irony._

Everything that happened afterwards took place exactly as he'd foreseen last night. The guy vamped out and moved in to bite the girl. In response, she grabbed his neck, lifting him an inch off the ground and pushing him away. Quickly, she jabbed her elbow into his face, let him go, and jumped onto a crate as Disco Dave staggered for a moment before regaining his balance.

She jumped at him, giving his face one of those mid-air roundhouse kicks that only Slayers and vampires seem to be able to pull off, and he fell to the pavement. Buffy ran up towards the two. The girl saw Buffy and smiled, approaching.

"It's okay, I got it. You're, uh, Buffy, right?" She asked. Xander watched as Buffy was hit speechless by that. As he kept looking on to see the girl beat on the vampire, he thought back a bit. **The Night Before** **17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale** _Holy shit -that vision had me doing something in it...how is that...they can't...he said Fate can't control what I do..._ Xander slowly put the Iron Coin back in his pocket and looked around. "I know you're probably watching. Since I'm supposed to be entertaining you, with all this. So how about you answer me this? How the hell does that vision have me predetermined as doing anything? I thought you said I was an agent of chaos, or something-"

"Yes, I did say that, didn't I?" Xander turned around to see the Jester standing near his window, looking straight at him. "And it's true enough, you are."

"Then how is it I was in that vision after I flipped your coin, doing something pre-planned by Fate?"

"Ah. Well, I'd have thought you would have figured that out by yourself, but if I must spell everything out for you..." the Jester sighed theatrically.

"You must. You must." Xander said stoically, staring at his visitor.

"Its not that simple. As an Agent of Chaos, the Forces of Fate indeed cannot control what you do. They cannot write in your book." The Jester stared at Xander, his unblinking solid-blue eyes looking somewhat amused. "_**But**_ it's not quite that simple; they can construct certain events around you, by controlling the lives of your friends. After all, they're your – what's the best term – ah, yes, your _**Achilles Heel**_**.** You spend so much time around your friends, they're practically your entire life; something which you may see as a strength, but Fate can exploit as a weakness. Because the Agents of Order can make educated guesses as to what you'll do. Past performance is an excellent predictor of future behavior. So, they predict."

"And if I don't do what they'll guess I'll do? What happens to their pre-scripted plans for my buds?" Xander demanded angrily.

"Again, it's not that simple." The Jester paused a moment, choosing his words with uncharacteristic carefulness. "Beings like myself and the other forces of Fate and Chaos just don't think as low, and simply, and linearly, and frankly stupidly, as you humans."

Xander rolled his eyes. _Heard that one before, buddy, find a new theme!_

The Jester Continued. "They don't plan for just one set of actions on your behalf. Fate will create a number of scenarios, as it were, based on a number of possible actions by you. A series of if-then clauses, essentially. Now, of course, the forces of Fate can't predict everything, nor can they create contingency plans for every action you might take. As an Agent of Chaos, you still have the capacity to surprise them quite a lot." the Jester informed him.

"So in that vision your Iron Coin just gave me-"

"It's Fate's most likely assumption of what you'll do. And is it something you'd likely not do, in that situation?"

_Hand a stake to Buffy when she doesn't have one, because a vampire might be nearby?_ Not really much of a question. Of course he would. "Alright, ya got me there." Harris chuckled. "By the way, I'm kind of surprised you showed up to talk to me. Speaking of, I'm also kinda surprised you let me demonstrate as much as I did for Giles. What's up with that?"

"You came up with a rather clever and ingenious exploit of the rules. I had to let you get away with it, just that once." The Jester shrugged. "And it's not as if I'm really here – or at least, not as if I'm _only_ really here. How do you humans think straight, only being in the one place at the one time?"

The blue-eyed higher being quickly shook his head, looking annoyed with himself. "Stupid question, of course. You _**don't**_ think straight." He smirked. "Well, see you." He vanished.

Xander facepalmed a moment, then rubbed his forehead. "He's worse than a physics test." **The Next Morning** **Sunnydale High Library**

The first thing that Xander had done the next day, at school, was head straight for the library. He needed to have a word with Giles.

"Hey, G-man?" Xander walked into the room, which was, as usual, empty of other students now that the usual mad post-summer rush to acquire textbooks and stuff was over. _Kinda weird how this place is always so deserted except for the Scooby Gang, huh. Still, I wouldn't be here if not for Slayage-related stuff myself, so who am I to throw stones?_

Giles made that clucking noise of frustration Willow had pointed out last week, and looked up from old book that he had been reading from and taking notes on, it looked like. "For the love of all that is good and holy, Xander, h-how many times have I told you to-" He then saw the look on the youth's face, instantly understanding this wasn't a social call. "Oh dear..."

Harris didn't waste time in getting to the point. "Who became the Slayer after Kendra died?"

"Uhm..." Giles stammered. "I, uh, I don't know her name offhand. I do know she was called in Boston, where she's currently stationed..."

"Nope." Xander said, cutting the librarian off. "Tonight she's going to be in Sunnydale, right outside the Bronze, beating the crap out of a vampire." _And dusting it with a stake she borrowed from Buffy, which I lent to her..._

"And how do you know this-" Giles quickly shut himself up, as he closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "Of course. The same way you knew where Buffy was in Los Angeles, and about the demon slave ring."

"Pretty much." Xander nodded. "And FYI, I still can't tell you anything more than I've already told you about that, far as I know."

"Absolutely lovely." Giles replied softly. "Well, if she's on her way here, then I can't imagine her Watcher doesn't have some knowledge of it. I'll see what I can find out."

"Alright." Xander looked at the clock on the wall. "Yikes. If I don't wanna get detention, I need to head off to class." He smirked. "On account of detention is always of the bad." He left the library, fighting the urge to whistle nervously.

**Now, ** **Inside The Bronze** Xander was only half-listening to Faith's naked alligator story. He had to admit, the idea of seeing Faith completely naked sounded appealing in the abstract – hey, 18 year old guy here – but he wasn't going to voice it, not with Cordelia sitting right there next to him.

She was his girlfriend, after all. Besides, he liked Cordy – most of the time. Xander knew he was many things, but that level of jerk he was not. He wasn't interested in the specifics of Faith nakedness. True, he hadn't seen Cordelia naked either...

_But soon, right?_ Part of him took that moment to say, hopefully.

_Who knows, maybe if we play our cards right! _Libido-Xander started rubbing his mental hands gleefully.

His thoughts was interrupted from his ruminations by Cordelia suddenly exclaiming, "I get it!" She had a smile and a look of pleased understanding on her face.

Faith looked at her, confused.

"No, Not the horny thing. Yuck! But the two Slayer thing. There was one, and then Buffy died for, like, two minutes, so then Kendra was called, and then when she died, Faith was called."

Faith nodded.

"But then why were you called here?" Willow asked. _The Million Dollar question_. Xander added mentally.

"Well, I wasn't. My Watcher went off to some retreat thing in England, and so I skipped out. I figured this was my chance to meet the infamous Buff and compare notes." Buffy smiled a little at the comment. "So, B," Faith continued, seeing Xander staring at her, "did you really use a rocket launcher one time?"

"Uh, yeah..." The Summers girl leaned forward a little. "Actually, it's a funny story. See, there was this big blue demon..."

Xander mentally tuned Buffy out as he thought, _Faith's Watcher is at a 'retreat', my ass. This is the forces of Fate we're talking about! If they were behind Acathla, the Judge, the Master killing Buffy and everything else, then they didn't just send Faith here because her Watcher decided to take a vacation...something bigger is going on._ _But what?_

Once again, Xander wished he could tell someone else about this – all of it, too, not just bits and pieces like he had with Giles. This kind of deep-level thinking just...it wasn't him. Way too convoluted. Xander knew himself for what he was, and that he much preferred the 'see vampire, stake vampire, celebrate the fact that there's one less bloodsucker in the world' school of thought.

Nonetheless Xander listened carefully when Oz brought up werewolves, and sighed in relief when Faith said she was cool with them. Having the new Slayer gunning for Oz – his friend – would not have been a good thing.

"The vamps, though, they better get their asses to DEFCON ONE!" Faith pointed at Buffy. "Cause you and I are gonna have fun, you know, Watcher-less and fancy-free." She smiled just a little too vicariously.

"Watcher-less?" Buffy looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Didn't yours go to England too?"

Xander just kept staring at the new Slayer in town, as Buffy answered in the negative. _What are you trying to hide from us, Faith? I get the feeling it's something...not good..._

**Sunnydale High Library**

It didn't take long for all of them – minus Cordelia, who decided to go home – to relocate to the School Library, where, surprise surprise, Giles still was. The explanation of the situation went quickly, and Xander noticed a strange...expression on Giles' face as the details were relayed to him...

"There's a Watchers' retreat every year in the Cotswolds." Giles said softly, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "It's a lovely spot. It's very s-serene." Xander, to his own surprise, found himself paying absolute attention to Giles. "There's horse riding and hiking and punting," he smiled, "and lectures and discussions. It-i-it's... it's a great honor to be invited." Then his face fell a moment. "Or so I'm told." His bitterness wouldn't have been out of place in a cup of black coffee.

Faith waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, its boring. Way too stuffy for a guy like you."

Buffy bit back a laugh. "Um, maybe I should introduce you again. Faith, this is _Giles_."

Willow smirked as Faith replied. "I see him. If I'd've known they came *that* young and cute, I would've requested a transfer."

Unsurprisingly, Giles took off his glasses and started to clean them. Gagging a little, Buffy asked, "Raise your hand if 'ew'." she raised her hand.

Without any hesitation, Xander raised his. A moment later, Willow and Oz did, though with slight hesitation.

Chuckling, "Well, um, uh, leaving aside for a moment my, uh, youth and beauty," Giles went over to the copier and grabbed the newspaper. "I'd-I'd say it was, um, fortuitous that Faith arrived when she did." He handed it to Buffy. Willow 'Aha!'d' loudly, raising her finger. Everyone else looked at her.

Willow lowered her head a moment. "Sorry. I just meant...aha! There's big evil brewin'. You'll never be bored here, Faith. 'Cause this is Sunnydale, home of the big brewin' evil."

Giles shook his head. "Yes, well, I don't know how big an evil it is, but, uh, two people have disappeared from the Sunset Ridge District."

"Well, I'm good for patrolling." Buffy said. "Later-ish, though. I promised Mom I'd be home for dinner." She handed the paper to Xander. He looked over the article, and then handed it off to Willow. "To which you're also invited, of course, dinner with us." Buffy added to Faith.

"Dyin' to meet the fam. I'm in."

Again, Xander stared at Faith uneasily. _Does anyone actually talk like that?_

The group eventually headed out after some discussion of Buffy's mom (the Slayer's Health Science exam had been completed months ago), but Xander ditched Willow, Faith and Oz as he hung around outside the library, while Buffy talked with Giles. _She's jealous. Just a little._ He would need to keep an eye on that.

Harris suddenly felt...exhausted. He wondered if there was a way he could keep notes on all this, without the Jester counting it as a violation of his rules. It was hard to mentally keep track of everything he needed to keep track of, and...he wasn't used to acting like this. Xander didn't consider himself stupid, most of his grades aside, but he wasn't a genius either, not even close. _What wouldn't I give for an eidetic memory right now..._

Once Buffy left, Xander walked in. "So, what did you find out about Faith, after I told you she was coming?"

Giles cleaned his glasses again, and then put them back on. "Faith's Watcher isn't at the retreat in the Cotswolds, I'm afraid. Indeed, she's not on a retreat anywhere. Rather, she's...she's quite dead." He sat down at the table, letting out a shallow exhalation.

"From your tone...I'm guessing, you knew her?" Xander asked carefully.

"Not personally." Giles shook his head. "My father knew Professor Dormer when he was my age, though. Worked on a few projects with her, which is how I know she was a highly respected Harvard academic."

"And Faith lied about her being on that retreat – on account of she was actually dead." _Now things make more sense...sort of...no, not really_. "Is it possible the new Slay-gal didn't know? Or...do ya think she did it?"

"I don't think it's possible she didn't know, or else she wouldn't have lied about the retreat. And no, fortunately, I don't think Faith killed her Watcher...although Slayers have, in the past, done that under certain circumstances..." Giles said softly.

"So, then, how can you be so sure Faith didn't do it?"

"Because her killer carved his name into Professor Dormer's body." Giles said after a moment. "Kakistos."

"Kakis-who?" Xander said it again, wrapping his tongue around the foreign word. "Kakistos. Greek?"

"Ancient Greek for Worst of the Worst." Giles replied, then looked at Xander. "How did you-"

"Hey, c'mon, G-dawg." Xander said, smirking as Giles immediately glared at him. _Note to self...never use 'dawg' again._ "I've been hanging around here ever since Buffy came home. You've taught me a little Latin and I've picked up some other things, here and there. Some of it _has_ sunk in."

"Despite your best efforts, yes?" Giles smiled, then his expression grew serious again.

"Will you tell Buffy?"

"I will tomorrow. Not sure how we're to handle this...but I doubt Kakistos is dead, or else she wouldn't be running."

"She's running?"

"She gave all the impressions of being on the run just now, yes. Why else do you think she described me as 'young and cute'? Classic misdirection," Giles explained. "Frankly, I suspect the girl's been running from a lot of things in her life."

"So...Kakistos would be coming here, after her, then?"

"Almost certainly. He's not the type to leave things unfinished."

"How bad?" Xander was now definitely starting to grow worried about all this.

"He's older, and arguably worse, than the Master, and definitely worse than Angelus, Drusilla or Spike. He does, as an advantage, not attract fanatics the way the Master did, though he'll most likely have some minions when he arrives."

Xander listened...and had an idea...wondered why he had never thought of it before.

**Author's Note: **You'll find out more about what happens with Kakistos next episode – there's not much more involvement with Xander that I can really cover in this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **Fourth Verse, same as the First. Now put me in a plane so I can put them in a Hearse. Hellsing abridged references for the win! Don't own Hellsing, btw. And I don't own the Princess Bride, Braveheart or the Die Hard series either. Goes without saying that I also own nothing related to Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

**Author's Note: **It's a fairly short chapter, yes, but mostly because episode #4 in this season doesn't offer that many opportunities for change. The big arc event in this episode is Angel's return.

Thanks to Starway Man, for beta-reading this chapter. Check out his fics, including his latest one, Here is Gone, already here, on a Computer Near You. Also thanks to my girlfriend, for being my other beta, and putting up with me writing fanfiction.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 4: In Which Fate Jumps The Shark

**October 15th, 1998**

**Chase Residence, Sunnydale**

Xander didn't bother trying to be sneaky about it as he put an arm around Cordelia, and then he lightly touched her breast. He didn't need to. This was hardly the first time he'd had an occasion to do so, when they two of them were sitting on the couch in Cordelia's personal TV room, in front of the forty-inch flat-screen television. Exactly like they were doing right now, in fact.

When their dates didn't involve going out – usually to the Bronze, or the occasional restaurant meal Xander could barely afford – the young couple always went to Cordy's house on Parkview Crescent. After the one time Cordelia had come over to her boyfriend's place, they'd both agreed the experience didn't bear repeating. Mr. Harris thinking Cordelia was a hooker, and trying to hire her services, was just the beginning of the disaster _**that **_night had been.

Still, life wasn't all bad these days. The new Slayer, Faith, had settled into Sunnydale after the ancient vampire named Kakistos had been killed by both of the Chosen working together – thanks to Xander arranging for Giles to force Faith to confess what had really happened back in Boston. Curiously, after using the Iron Coin and seeing what sort of roach-house the junior Slayer had chosen to live in – the Sunnydale Motor Inn was a place even _**he **_would never stay in, Xander had thought to himself – Giles had arranged for a stipend with the Council, for Faith to be able to afford her own place. She couldn't live with her new Watcher because of appearances at the high school, but the dark-haired Chosen One's living arrangements were now a million times better than they would have been, had the Jester not done what he did with Xander during the summer.

The agents of Fate were _**not **_pleased at this disruption to their plans, granted, but they could do nothing to undo what had taken place without drawing the attention of certain higher powers. Powers that would do unspeakable things to them, in retaliation for directly violating the cosmic rules that way. Besides, Fate was too orderly minded to break the rules like that.

Feeling her boyfriend touching her, Cordelia looked away from the television for a moment and smiled just a little, then she returned her attention back to the idiot box. Ever since those zombies had invaded Buffy's house a while back, looking for that way-ugly mask, the fashion queen had been permitting Harris to take liberties that, last year, she would have never allowed. Well, they _**had **_been together for nearly a year by this point; unofficially, anyway, with their first wild kiss in the Summers family's basement. The Chase girl had to admit, strange as it was to contemplate; this was the longest relationship she'd ever been in, so far. And that she had definitely started developing feelings for Xander, despite the odds against it.

Why else would she have watched movies like _Braveheart _and the _Die Hard _series, just because her boyfriend had wanted to see them?

Tonight Xander had convinced her to watch a movie called _The Princess Bride_, and Cordelia had to admit; it was somewhat amusing, in its own way. She'd already made sure he wouldn't tell anyone about the fact that she had quite the movie collection at home, and was really quite the movie buff. The cheerleader smiled again, recalling Xander's exaggerated (for dramatic effect) reaction to her threat. It had been priceless. No making out for a month, if he told anyone her secret.

_Good thing I won't ever have to actually carry it out. _Cordelia thought to herself. She wasn't sure she had the willpower to follow through on her threat, these days. Well, she did, but Cordelia knew she wouldn't have enjoyed the experience any more than Xander would have.

"Have fun storming the castle!"

"Think it will work?"

"It would take a miracle."

"Buh-bye!"

Cordelia smiled, and moved a little closer to her loveable doofus as he said the words along with the movie characters. _Unbelievable! If Harmony was here to see this right now, her head would probably explode from the shock factor...my God. Six months ago, who would have ever thought that I'd __**willingly **__watch a movie like this?_

Xander leaned in and gave his significant other a quick, light kiss before turning his attention back to the television screen. He loved this movie. It was a classic, and so quote-able. For a long time – ever since he'd found out about vampires, actually – he'd been dying for the opportunity to say 'I am not left handed!' to a vampire. Unfortunately, so far, none had obliged.

Eventually the movie ended, although Xander and Cordelia were far too busy making out to realize that, or even to turn the TV off for several minutes. Things quickly started heating up as Cordelia ended up flat on her back on the couch, and Xander moved on top of her, his tongue in her mouth as they kissed. Both of them started moaning passionately, as the make-out session threatened to turn into something more. But Cordelia wasn't ready for them to go that far yet, and Xander knew it – despite the throbbing bulge in his groin, which, much to his embarrassment, was totally tenting his pants.

Finally, Harris got off of his girlfriend and Cordelia picked up the remote control, turning off the TV. By mutual understanding, they didn't talk about how close they had been to disappearing inside the Chase girl's bedroom for the night; both teens knew that the sex had to wait for when they were _**both **_ready for it.

"Well?" Xander asked Cordelia, finally getting his labored breath under control. "What did you think of the movie?"

"I liked it, I guess." Cordelia admitted, getting her own breathing down to normal levels. "But no quoting it endlessly." She added with a smile. "I'm sure you could have recited every single line, the way you were carrying on."

"Oh, come on!" Xander protested, then smiled. "Not _**all **_of it. Just the good scenes. 'But only slightly less well known is this! Never go in against a-"

Cordelia shut him up by putting a finger against his lips. She waited a moment, then took it away. "Why do you act like this?" the former May Queen suddenly asked, in a more serious tone of voice.

"Act like what?" Instinctively, Xander's thoughts went to the Iron Coin. Had he done something relating to that, what with the way he'd been behaving since summer vacation -?

"Like a dork. A goof." Cordelia smiled a little. "I mean, don't get me wrong; I dolike you when you're like that. Sort of. Sometimes. It's kind of endearing, in its own pathetic way." She shook her head. "But it's not who you really are. Xander, you're not an idiot – on account of an idiot couldn't keep up with me during our verbal sparring matches, the way you do. And, I mean, just to use the most recent example, those holy-water squirt guns. They were a big help with those vampires Faith and Buffy handled! What was that freakazoid's name again? The one with the hoof-hands? Kakastones?"

"Kakistos." Xander corrected her, smiling over how Cordy had mangled the vampire's name.

"Whatever." Cordelia said dismissively, waving a hand. "But my point still stands. You're not an idiot, but you act like one. Way too often, too."

"Gee, thanks Cordy. You really know how to make a guy feel good about himself." Harris smirked.

"See!" Cordelia insisted. "There it is again. Damn it, Xander, _why _do you always do that? I thought we'd been together long enough, we knew each other well enough that you didn't have to act the clown any more; at least not in private with me. So why do you still act like a horse's ass, when we're alone like this?"

Xander didn't say anything for a moment, and his face looked, well, pensive. After a few seconds, he said softly, "Well...you know what my home life is like, sweetheart. Better than anyone else, including and especially Willow. Being...un-serious? It's been my thing, my coping mechanism, for a helluva long time...it's easier than thinking about and dealing with reality. And habit's a funny thing, I guess. I'm sorry, Cor, but it's simply not as easy as just flipping off a switch when we're alone together."

_Yeah, I suppose. _Cordelia thought to herself, considering her own habit of being subservient to her parents whenever they talked down to her. _A bad habit's a hard thing_ _to break_,_no doubt about it._

"And ever since sophomore year...well, the stuff we've had to deal with, it makes my home life look...uh, _**domestic **_by comparison." Xander went on. "I mean, think about it. We're living on a Hellmouth. A gateway to hell. We go through hell every night we fight against the monsters – demons, and vampires, and...I mean...everything." He took Cordelia's hand and squeezed it softly. The nightmares. They both had them...and dealing with them was never easy. "Ya wanna know the truth, Cor? I'm amazed, sometimes, that after everything we've gone through, we're still sane...and that we're still alive."

Cordelia squeezed his hand, before Xander squeezed it back. She then said determinedly, "We'll live through this, dweeb. Graduation isn't all that far away, and after high school's over? I swear, we're getting out of this town straightaway. Go live somewhere safe."

"WHAT?" Xander looked freaked, just as she'd expected him to be. "But what about-"

"Willow? After we graduate, she's gonna be heading off to some prestigious college like, like Harvard, or Oxford, or whatever. What the hell, it wouldn't surprise me if she's already started getting application forms from every university with a stamp." Cordelia said cynically. "Oz? He'll follow his girlfriend wherever she goes, we both know that. And as for your precious Buffy? Just my opinion, but she doesn't need you any more."

"Yes she does!" Xander protested automatically.

"Does she?" Cordelia asked sharply. "Last night when you volunteered to patrol with her and Faith, the way Buffy blew you off? It spoke volumes to me. And if it keeps up, my money says that by the time we graduate, the only thing the Blonde Wonder will think you're useful for is fetching the snacks during the library meetings. If that."

Xander remained silent for a few moments, feeling the Iron Coin in his pocket. He suddenly had a burning desire to bring it out and test his girlfriend's theory, but he managed to restrain himself just in time. The Jester's warnings of what would happen if he tried something like that were burned into his memory. "And you, Cor? What did you have in mind, apart from disappearing out of Sunnydale with me, once high school's over?"

Cordelia shrugged. "I'm not sure. Get inducted into some hugely expensive sorority somewhere far away from here, I suppose."

Xander shook his head. "Somewhere where we can have a normal life, you mean? Demons and vampires do exist in places other than Sunnydale, honey."

"Sure, but that doesn't mean we have to live in a town with a big glowing neon sign that says 'eat here' for the monsters." Cordelia pointed out. "Well, I don't, anyway!"

_Sweet Odin, she's really serious about this. My girlfriend wants to get out of this hell-hole for good, as soon as she can, and take me with her. But leaving Sunnydale...I mean...can I really do that? With the Iron Coin... _Harris honestly didn't know if that was an option for him, nowadays. He had a responsibility to use that thing wisely, for his friends' sake if nothing else. And he doubted it would be that simple, that leaving the Hellmouth with Cordelia would get them away from this sort of life. The universe – or Fate, maybe – had a perverse, sick sense of humor. And as long as he had the Iron Coin, Xander suspected the agents of Order would never stop trying to get it away from him.

Xander had to admit, right now he didn't know...the Iron Coin, and everything he had to do with it. Cordelia. Which would he really pick?

**October 16th, 1998**

**Sunnydale High Library**

"Giles."

The British Watcher looked up from his book. Xander handed him a piece of paper, which the librarian quickly looked over. _Ah. _The Latin sentences he'd assigned to the boy to translate. He'd been making progress, though slowly, given everything else he'd had to do. Xander was determined, and hardly stupid, but neither did he have a particular gift for languages. Good Lord, just like everyone else around here, sometimes the boy didn't speak English – he spoke Californian, instead!

It had been but a few months, though, since the Latin studies had begun. Xander went over to one of the shelves as Giles looked over the paper. _Only a few mistakes, excellent._

"This is fairly good work, Xander. Though, here on the second one? _Amavistis _is the second person plural, not the-" Rupert suddenly noticed Xander was completely ignoring him as he looked over the shelf, checking the spines. "Err, are you looking for something in particular?" Giles set the paper down and came around the desk.

"Acathla. That hell dimension he was supposed to suck the entire world into?" Harris said musingly.

"Yes, what about it?" Giles watched as Xander pulled a book off the shelf.

"Any chance anyone could come back from there? Say, just as an example, Angel?"

"What? I don't – there's been no record of, of anyone returning from such a demon dimension..." Giles replied slowly, taking off his glasses to clean them. "Why, um, why did you use that particular example, if I may ask?"

Xander sighed. "Well, that's the thing, Giles – Angel's back. Or, at least, he'll be back in about five days, in the woods. Fighting Buffy."

Giles nearly dropped his glasses, catching them with his other hand. "Do I need to ask if you're sure?"

"You just did. And I am." Xander nodded.

_Bloody hell. _Giles had to take a moment to bury the bad memories of that night he'd been tortured by a creature he'd once called ally, if not friend, but by that point had possessed not even an ounce of humanity in him. Forcing himself to focus, Giles asked, "Is it Angel who will be fighting Buffy? Or...Angelus?"

"There's not as much of a difference as I'd like." Xander replied softly, thinking of the vision he'd had of Buffy's boyfriend – after flipping the Iron Coin and saying the senior Slayer's name. "But we both know Willow did the spell, and the Buffster said Captain Forehead had already gotten his soul back when she shoved that sword through his guts and sent him downstairs in order to save the world. So unless he got perfectly happy in Hell, Deadboy still has his soul. More's the pity."

"But he will be fighting Buffy, you say?"

"Yeah..." Xander trailed off for a moment. "The guy's gonna be like an animal, when they do. He'll be...feral, I guess is the word I'm lookin' for. But more importantly...Buffy's gonna win that fight. And...I think he'll recover. Buffy will do everything she can to try to make sure of that, if I know her."

"Yes...I suppose so. And that's hardly surprising – she never could think straight, where that damned vampire was concerned..." Giles tried to keep the growl out of his voice. "Still...from what I know of the demon dimension Acathla was associated with, it's a, uh, a realm of eternal torment...and time moves differently in such places, than it does here in our plane of existence. Angel, he-he could have been there for centuries, from his point of view...and, um, under such conditions, he'd be...well, I can't even imagine. Feral at the very least, as you, ah, said. So what do you propose we do?" Giles asked.

"Nothing. At least, not until Buffy finds him."

Giles couldn't believe what he'd just heard. _Nothing? Why the devil should we do that? _"Why do you-"

"Because if anyone can make sure that Overbite recovers from whatever's happened to him, it's Buffy. And besides, I don't think he'll come back on his own, Giles. You don't just check out of Hell like it's some sort of damn hotel, right? He'll have had help. From someone. Until we know why..."_Until I can figure out what Fate has in mind for him..._ _Or Chaos, maybe. I wouldn't put it past the Jester, or his buds, to mess around and do something like this just for their own amusement._

"This is unusually thoughtful for you, Xander...and, um, somewhat out of character for you as well, I-I must say." Giles said hesitantly. "Given your past feelings for Angel, I'd have thought you'd advocate seeking him out and dusting him, before Buffy ever found out he came back. So why are you-"

"These days, I have to think about things...real carefully." Xander admitted softly. "Knowing what I know – and knowing I'm going to know things that I can't explain to you, or anyone. I wish I could tell ya how I know these things, Giles, believe me. This isn't...it's really not easy. But you know why I can't say anything to anyone, apart from you."

After all these months, Giles just nodded and accepted that. He hadn't gotten anywhere figuring out what kind of geas Xander was under, but as long as the boy's advance information continued to be legitimate, then the Watcher could live with that. "Alright, then what's the plan...for after Buffy wins her battle against Angel?"

**October 21st, 1998**

**Crawford Street Mansion, Sunnydale**

Buffy Anne Summers had not had a good week so far.

For one thing, her new boyfriend Scott Hope had freaked her out by gifting her with a claddagh ring; the same type of ring Angel had given to her on her 17th birthday. For another, one of Scott's friends, Pete Clarner, had turned out to be a murderer; not to mention he'd been pulling a Jekyll and Hyde routine, killing his girlfriend Debbie Foley as well as a another student named Jeff Orkin. It was a good thing she and Xander had managed to stop Pete from killing the school counselor, Stephen Platt, but that was about the only good thing in a week filled with violence and mayhem.

As well as the reappearance of her former undead boyfriend.

Xander watched from the shadows as Buffy chained Angel to the wall, closing the manacles around the unconscious vampire's wrists. Finally, she was done; the vampire was held securely to the wall, unable to move far from his position. He watched as the blonde Slayer turned and headed for the door, before Xander stepped into view.

"So tell me. Were you planning on keeping this a secret?" Harris asked, gesturing towards the unconscious vampire.

Buffy nearly jumped out of her skin. "Xander! How did you – hey, were you _f__**ollowing **_me?"

"No. Didn't need to. Already knew Angel was back." Xander said carefully. He wasn't sure if the Jester would let him get away with saying that; but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"What!? How did you – _**why didn't you tell me?!**_" Buffy screamed at him. It was a good thing the mansion was so far away from the nearest neighbors, her voice was that loud and shrill.

"Would you have believed me if I had? Good Godfrey Cambridge, Buff, I didn't believe it myself, even when I saw it with my own eyes. To be honest, I was kinda hoping it was all a hallucination or something. Especially after Giles told me no one's ever come back from a demon dimension!" Xander said in annoyance. _My God, maybe Cordy had a point last week about how Buffy's started acting around me..._

"You told Giles? Who else did you tell?! Willow? My Mom? Did someone send out a memo?!" Buffy yelled angrily.

"No. I told Giles because he's the expert on this kind of things. But FYI, I say you _**should **_tell Willow, Oz, your mother, and everyone else. Including and maybe especially Faith, Buff. On account of you have a feral vampire chained up, not five feet away from us! Deadboy is back, after killing people for four months and getting within a hair's breath of destroying the entire freaking world. I mean, forgive me if I'm not dancing a jig or whatever, that Ms. Calendar's murderer has returned into our lives!"

"He's not – he has a soul!" Buffy said automatically, causing Xander to roll his eyes at hearing that old excuse again.

"And that's the only reason why I'm not yelling at you to stake him – right here, right now. But you can't keep this a secret, Buffy. I can tell you still love him, despite being an item with Scott now. I get that-" Harris paused, and then shook his head. "No, actually, I don't understand it at all, but I have no choice but to accept the fact that you do. You're my friend, and there _**are **_times when I simply trust you to do what's right, Slay-gal. But this is too big for blind faith, Buffy. The truth's going to come out eventually – and when it does..." Xander shook his head again. "Do you _**really **_think hiding the fact that your killer ex has come back from Hell is going to turn out well? Faith finds out that you're hiding a vampire – her immediate reaction is going to be to kill Angel first, and ask questions like never. You've got an entire Hellmouth to cover, and you can't do it while hiding something like this from your friends – or from the other Slayer who's going to be watching your back on patrol, and in the big fights."

Ignoring the stubborn look on Buffy's face, Xander turned to head out of the mansion. "I know you won't just dust the guy and be done with it, as much as I'd like to see that happen – and despite personal feelings, I promise I won't try to dust him either. Look, Buff, it's up to you; I'm not going to tell anyone else about this, and I don't think Giles will either, even though I can't speak for him." Harris sounded almost...disappointed as he stopped at the front doors of the abandoned mansion. "Just please, keep in mind what I said. Trust has gotta be a two-way street, and once people find out you weren't willing to trust them with this particular secret – well, what makes you think they'll trust _**you **_with any secrets of their own, in the future?"

It was simply too bad how Buffy was in no mood to listen to her male friend, as Xander left and she settled down to watch her unconscious vampire lover twitching and jerking in his sleep, obviously reliving his experiences in the hell dimension to which she had sent him.

It was also too bad how Buffy started making plans to talk to Giles as soon as she could, to find out exactly how Xander had known Angel had come back before she did...


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Thanks to Starway Man and my girlfriend for beta-reading this.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 5: No Answers

**October 22nd, 1998**

**Library, Sunnydale High School**

Xander was alone on the mezzanine level of the Sunnydale High library, checking out a theory within the privacy of the stacks.

Back in the beginning, he had of course investigated the contents of Giles's library; which had, predictably, no books about The Jester, or the Hydra, or Fate and Chaos – at least not in the senses that the Jester had outlined to him. No books containing information in any language Xander could read, anyway. Granted that Harris had, at some point along the way, found out about a group of powerful beings on the side of 'good' known only as 'The Powers that Be'; a rather obscure collection of higher beings believed to be responsible for activating the next Slayer as needed, and the information source of many seers, particularly those that provided visions for Champions on the side of Light.

But such things had been more or less incidental; Xander had figured looking up Fate or Chaos, more generally, might get him somewhere. So far he hadn't found anything useful, but then he'd only just started on the books written in Latin.

Xander didn't look up from the latest book he was checking out when he heard the double doors open, but he did when he realized that the new arrival was Buffy.

"Giles?" Harris heard Buffy say, her voice unusually tense. "We need to talk."

"Alright then." Giles said softly. Xander heard a book close. Then the Watcher said, "What do we need to talk about? What's wrong?"

"Xander! That's what's wrong. He told me...Giles, how the heck did the two of you know that Angel was back before I did? And _**why the hell didn't either of you tell me!?**_"

_Gee, Buff_, Xander thought to himself acidly, _just announce it to the whole school while you're at it, why don't you?_ He could easily imagine Giles cleaning his glasses yet again as he provided the answer.

"I'm not entirely sure _how_ Xander knew that Angel was back, Buffy. He just did. He knew that in five days, you would fight and end up subduing a feral Angel."

"So, what, he just came up to you and told you that?!" Buffy exploded furiously.

"Essentially, yes."

Buffy didn't say anything for a moment, and Xander smiled to himself as he accurately imagined the blonde Slayer gaping in surprise at Rupert's answer. Finally, though, she managed to speak up again, "And you just believed him?"

"Of course. He's developed a bit of a track record about being right about such things, you see."

"What are you talking about? 'Cause Xander's opinion is wrong, nearly every time he opens his-"

"That's not true, and you know it full well, Buffy." Giles reprimanded her even as Xander scowled up in the stacks. "You're upset. I understand that." The British man paused for a moment. "I'm not sure if the boy's told you, but Xander knew that you were in Los Angeles after you...left town, back in May. He knew where you were, and told me he was going there to bring you home. I had nothing to do with him going, by the way; he chose to do that all on his own. Xander also knew about the demons running that teen shelter. He likewise knew that Faith was going to arrive when she did, which is how I had the opportunity to learn beforehand what had happened with her Watcher and Kakistos."

"What?!" Buffy sputtered a moment. "But how is that – how did he-?"

"I haven't the slightest idea, Buffy." Giles admitted.

_Oh, come on, Hydra! _Harris thought to himself, _I can't imagine this conversation is something I could tell Buffy – or anyone else. So how come the G-man can do it?_ There was also the fact that Xander just plain didn't like how Giles was telling Buffy all of this. It would make everything much harder in the future... even though Harris had known that it was a given that Giles would say something to someone, eventually. Still...

"But as I said, Xander has a proven track record regarding these things, nowadays." Giles continued. "And, incidentally, his counsel is the only reason why I didn't go out into those woods with that dart-gun over there, so I could find Angel, incapacitate him, and then stake him before you ever even knew he'd come back."

"You what?" Buffy now sounded horrified. "But Giles..."

"But what? Do you even remember what his, his alter ego did? To me, to Jenny?" Giles's voice now sounded ice-cold, and Xander didn't enjoy imagining what the expression on the British man's face was like.

"Of course I remember. But it's exactly like you just said!" Buffy argued. "It wasn't Angel who did all that. It was Angelus!"

"Buffy, I'll only say this once. Not everyone is as capable of differentiating between the two of them as you are." Giles pointed out softly. "At least not on a, a gut level. I for one still have nightmares about that soulless creature leering at me, seeing Angel's face as Angelus gleefully tortured me into giving up the information he wanted to activate Acathla, a-and destroy the world. In case you didn't know, that vampire broke every finger on my left hand, he nearly severed the ligaments on both my legs, and had Spike of all people not intervened, he would have brought out a chainsaw and cut off my-"

"Giles, please – stop. Don't, I-I can't, I-I-I don't want to hear this," Buffy's voice definitely had a begging quality to it now.

"As you wish. But to return to our previous topic – apparently, Xander knew that Angel would return, and even speculated that he must have had help in order to escape that hell dimension to which you sent him. Something I'm rather inclined to agree with, after having had nearly a week to think about it. And as I said, Buffy, the boy's insistence that I let you deal with Angel was the only reason I didn't go hunting for him when I first found out the big news. Why I didn't give that never-to-be-sufficiently-damned creature payback in kind, for everything he did to me that night."

Xander sensed how Buffy was trying to compose herself, and accurately guessed that she hadn't expected the conversation to have proceeded this way. Then he heard the blonde girl ask, "Who else knows about this? I mean, Xander mentioned that he hadn't told anyone about Angel except you, even if I'm not sure I can actually believe him..."

Giles shrugged. "It's true enough, a-as far as I know; the only people who've learned about Angel having returned so far are you, Xander and myself. I must admit that I have serious misgivings about not telling Faith, to be completely frank with you; but again, I'm willing to trust you in keeping his existence a secret from her. For now, anyway."

"But why would Xander-? He _**hates**_ Angel!" Buffy sounded absolutely befuddled and bewildered after hearing that bit of news.

Xander rolled his eyes and came out from behind the shelves. "Yeah, more or less." He said as he came down the stairs from the mezzanine level, and both Giles and Buffy turned to face him. "But I also know some pretty important things, Buff: one, Dead Boy can be helpful around here, at least as long as he's all soul-having and stays as miserable as hell. And two, for some reason that doesn't – and never will – make any sense to me, you care about him. No, let's be honest; you love the guy in the 'till death do us part' sort of way. And as much as I don't like that undead asshole, and as much as I don't like you keeping his return a secret from the rest of the gang; the simple fact is that I trust you, Buffy. We've been friends long enough for me to accept that you know what you're doing, where that bloodsucker's concerned." _Well, sometimes, anyway_.

Unfortunately, Buffy was in no mood to think rationally about what Xander had just said. "Is it true? That you knew all those things, before they happened?" Xander nodded. "So what else do you know?" She demanded.

"At the moment?" Xander shrugged. "Nothing at all, in terms of future knowledge. Well, I do know that it's very, very likely that keeping Angel's return a secret is going to end very, very badly; but then, I already told you that."

"_How_ did you know all those things?" Buffy demanded in her best 'I am Slayer, answer me!' tone of voice.

"An all-powerful agent of Chaos called the Jester gave me his magic Iron Coin that allows me to get a sneak peak about what Fate is planning for people." And, exactly as Xander expected, not a single word of that came out. His mouth opened, his lips moved, but no words could be heard.

"Xander! What the hell!? Don't you play games-" Buffy started to rant, it appeared that her temper was about to hit boiling point.

Giles cut Buffy off at once. "He's not playing anything, Buffy. Xander literally can't tell you; this also happened when he tried to explain to me how he knew that you were in Los Angeles, a-and about those demons you encountered there." Giles took his glasses off and started to clean them. The nervous habit was one that had been only exacerbated during his time on the Hellmouth. "I rather suspect he's under some kind of geas or magical compulsion, preventing him from speaking about how he knows what he knows. Whoever or whatever decided to give him this sort of advance knowledge, it clearly wants to protect its identity from the rest of us."

"Actually, he just wants to make it more fun for himself by making it harder for me." Xander tried to say. Unfortunately, he couldn't manage to vocalize any of that either. Harris paused and then said, "Look, Buffy, I wish I could tell you everything, I really do. I wish I could tell all of you about what's happened to me. But I can't. So you're just gonna have to trust me on this, the same way I have to trust you about Angel. It really is that simple, whether you like it or not."

Buffy looked at him, and opened her mouth several times, but said nothing... thanks to the sheer sincerity in Xander's voice. In her view, Xander Harris was, even at the best of times, usually an unserious person. It was his thing, his way of coping with the hell that they went through every day and every night living on the Hellmouth. But now...

Buffy looked Xander directly in the eye, and nodded once. There were no words exchanged...and Xander could tell that even though the Slayer didn't like this situation, she knew she'd just have to deal somehow. Trust was – had to be – a two-way street, after all. But then the blonde girl said, "So, does that mean you want me to keep all this a secret? You want me to lie to Willow, and Oz, and even Cordelia about what's going on with you nowadays?"

"Yeah," Xander said with a loud sigh. "I mean, I've thought about it; but what do you think is gonna happen once the rest of the gang finds out about this? They'll just look at me the same way you're looking at me right now, Buff. Like I'm some kinda freak. And I'd rather not see that look on my best friend's face, or my girlfriend's face either, for as long as I possibly can. Besides, there's nothing they could do to help me deal with this, anymore than you and Giles can. And yeah, I'm sure they'll find out the truth eventually; but I prefer for it to be later rather than sooner. Just like the situation with you and Dead Boy, now that I come to think of it..."

**October 23rd, 1998**

**17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale**

It was time to flip the coin again. Time to figure out what Fate had in store for his friends, in the weeks and months ahead.

And to wait for the other shoe to drop.

So far, Xander felt, he hadn't effected that much real change – sure, he'd brought Buffy home earlier, he'd gotten Faith into better housing, he'd confronted Giles and Buffy about Angel... but still, the broader outcomes of what he'd seen created by Fate had nonetheless taken place as he'd seen them. Which was, in part, because there wasn't as much for him to change just yet.

Over the past three months, though, Xander _had_ screwed up Fate's plans, even if it was just a little. He had definitely changed the course of some predestined events, which had the potential to snowball into larger changes. Xander had no idea if Fate had noticed, or even if it cared, but he doubted that his luck was so good that he'd be ignored by the agents of Fate for very much longer. Still, for the life of him...without any ability to know more about the powers of Fate – or even, really, the powers of Chaos – Harris had no idea where or when or how they'd come at him. Fate couldn't control him...so perhaps they'd try to control the people around him...even if he had the Iron Coin, and could tell if Fate was going to get up to something in their lives. But then...Xander to admit, he had no idea about what other methods Fate might have at its disposal to enforce its plans.

And what were those plans? Why did Fate decide that this was supposed to happen, and not that, or vice-versa? What larger goal could have been served by Buffy dying, for example, down in the Master's cave eighteen months ago? On a very basic level, though, the answer to those questions didn't really matter to the male teen. If Fate was going to fuck around with him, and his friends...Xander knew he'd do whatever it took to protect his friends from whatever Fate threw at them.

He took a breath and flipped the coin. "Buffy Summers." He saw...nothing. Both comforting...and worrying. Harris didn't know what was coming, but whatever it was, this meant that it wasn't going to be the work of Fate...which meant that it was probably – okay, possibly – not going to be as big a deal as Overbite's return into their lives. Shrugging, Xander then flipped the Iron Coin again. "Faith Lehane."

The vision instantly tore through the young man's mind like a freight train.

_A woman...all refinement and tea and ambition. A glove, metal, ancient, something that fit all the way up to the elbow, spines around the bottom...no, they looked more like spikes or prongs. The woman...Faith watching in horrified disbelief as the unknown woman put the glove on, they were standing in what looked like the abandoned mansion Buffy had set Angel up in._

"_Faith." The woman said, "You're an idiot." Lightning then flew out from the glove...as the woman released a mad laugh of triumph._

Xander staggered back, and nearly fell over. That vision...the sheer intensity of it...it had been more powerful than any other he'd ever had. Apart from that first one, way back when he'd first gotten the Iron Coin.

That woman had definitely had a British accent...and the way she'd carried herself, all prim and proper and wearing a _cardigan_ of all things, in southern California? It almost screamed 'Watcher' to him._ I thought they were all stuffy old guys, like Giles, or that Merrick person Buffy mentioned...instead, they also seem to come in the female and psychotic variety..._ Xander laughed just a little at that thought. He made a mental note to calm down, as he sounded almost hysterical; and to keep an eye out for the bad guy dressed in good guy clothing.

Taking another deep breath, Xander flipped the coin again. "Cordelia Chase." Nothing. "Rupert Giles." Nothing. "Daniel Osbourne." Nothing, again. "Joyce Summers." A whole lot of nothing. Harris sighed, anticipating nothing but more of the same as he said the final name on his list.

"Willow Rosenberg."

This time, Xander _**did**_ fall down once that vision had finished blasting through his mind, he was unable to stay upright even though he tried to grab onto the back of his desk chair.

"What the hell?!" Xander yelled at the Iron Coin, which had likewise fallen to the floor. He quickly leaned over to grab the coin, which he pocketed, still shaking his head. What he had seen...the very **idea** of kissing Willow like that, within her bedroom...

Xander loved Willow, of course, as his best, and oldest friend. As a sister even, almost. But making out with her, like he'd seen in that vision the Iron Coin had granted him...frankly, it made Harris feel more than a little bit nauseous. Even though, despite the shock and embarrassment factor, in the vision he had...enjoyed it. Which was almost even more nauseating. And the concept that he and Willow would do something like that to Cordelia and Oz...the young man totally didn't get it...

Xander walked quickly to the bathroom and poured water from the tap into a cup, drinking it down quickly. After hesitating for a moment, he filled the cup and emptied it again two more times. Finally, the Slayerette set the cup down on the sink counter, placing both of his hands on the same counter and looking at himself in the mirror.

"Okay, dude. Get a grip." Harris told himself. "Let's think about it rationally for a moment. Fate can't control what I do directly." _Or, at least, I'm going to keep thinking that since, well, it's a lot more comforting than the alternative. _"So there has to be a reason why they'd think I would kiss Willow, and then be able to write that into Willow's book." Taking a breath, Xander focused and went over the vision again in his mind, which was still as fresh as if he'd just had it.

They're there in Willow's room, getting ready for the Homecoming dance; somehow, he knows that. They're trying their formal wear on? He's not sure yet, just that the meeting is related to Homecoming...wait, yes, he's putting on the monkey suit borrowed from his cousin Rigby, and behind a screen, Willow is putting on her black dress. She comes out from behind the screen, and he looks at her...

_She does look nice...pretty, even._ Xander admitted to himself. But still... first of all, he didn't think Willow looked close to prettier than Cordelia, and second of all...his Willow-shaped best friend was only attractive to him in the abstract. Like when he'd accidentally found an old wedding photo of his parents. He'd thought his mom had looked pretty in her white dress, but nothing more than that.

And yet somehow, that version of himself that was in the vision had thought otherwise. He'd been overwhelmed, like 'he was seeing her for the first time.' Which didn't make any sense. Xander closed his eyes again and, almost sweating with the mental effort, he went over the vision again, carefully, inch by inch...and then he saw it.

It was almost invisible...but not quite. A mist...just the faintest vestige of black smoke, not far from the rear wall of the bedroom, around head-high.

_Some kind of spell, or something._ Xander thought to himself in satisfaction. He believed it had to be, knowing nothing of a certain species of mercenary demon whose incorporeal signature this was.

Still, who would cast a spell like that on him...and Willow, for that matter? Despite the romantic feelings the redhead had apparently always felt towards him – which he'd missed out on completely, up until last year – Xander knew Willow was with Oz now, and would never want to do anything like that to the werewolf musician. She was a better person than that; Xander was willing to stake his own soul on that belief.

_So why would..._ Xander started to think to himself, before one possible answer occurred to him.

_Fate._ It seemed a little banal as a way to get revenge, or even force him onto a path of its choosing, but then Xander suspected that Fate played a long-term game. Obviously, there was more to all this than just him kissing Willow...

Although, whatever Fate's ultimate purpose was, Alexander Lavelle Harris knew that he damn well wasn't going to let it happen.

**November 2nd, 1998**

**Chase Residence, Sunnydale**

"I was wondering," Xander said, as he got ready to leave the mansion and head back to his house. Of course, walking home after sunset in Sunnydale was a little more complicated than it might be elsewhere. You didn't just grab your coat and go. Stake? _Check_. Cross? _Check._ Holy Water? _Check_. Ready to run for your life at a moment's notice? _Also check._

"Yeah, about what?" Cordelia asked as Xander finally put his coat on.

"Well, I was kinda hoping you could help Willow out with picking her dress for Homecoming. Since you know more about the whole fancy dress thing than...well, anyone else I know." Harris smiled somewhat nervously.

"Xander." Cordelia complained just a little. "Come on! I've been playing nice with Willow ever since last year, and...well, she's been doing the same thing with me, but the fact of the matter is, we just don't get along. Hell, the only reason we've called a truce to all the hostilities is you." She pointed out.

"I'm not asking you to become best friends with her." Xander said, repressing a feeling of pain over how two of the most important women in his life simply didn't like each other much, if at all. "Much as I wish you guys would become best buds, we all know it ain't gonna happen. All I'm asking is that you help Will out with her dress, accessories, that kind of stuff."

"That 'kind of stuff'?" Cordelia laughed in genuine amusement.

"Okay, fine. I don't know squat about all the girlie stuff, which is kinda odd, now that I think of it – since nearly all my friends are of the female persuasion." Xander sighed. "Look, we're seniors now, and this is the last opportunity Willow's ever going to have to enjoy this sort of dance, and I want her to enjoy it, and for everything to go well for her and Oz. So, please do this for me? I'll let you pick the next three movies we watch!"

Cordelia laughed again. "No way, for this I'm going to need a lot more than that." She smiled wickedly. _Uh-oh..._ Xander didn't like the look of that smile. Cordelia then added, "If I do this for you, then you gotta let me take you shopping for a whole new wardrobe."

Xander held up his hands and made a cross with his fingers, as if warding her off. They both laughed for a moment at his antics before Harris said, "Come on, Cordy. This isn't worth an entire wardrobe." Harris knew his girlfriend had been wanting to take him shopping for a clothing makeover ever since she'd returned from summer vacation. But Xander happened to like his clothes – even the Hawaiian shirts everyone else seemed to hate – and he didn't think Cordelia should be spending that much money on him in the first place, even if she insisted she could afford it. Which wasn't the point. It wasn't as if he could spend as much dough on her, even if he used his entire road-trip fund. Which, frankly, he wasn't expecting to actually use for its intended purpose any longer, not at this point...

And most importantly? Xander, like nearly every male of the human species, really, really didn't like clothes shopping.

"One outfit, tops." He countered.

Cordelia considered. "Two outfits, _and_ you let me pick the next three movies. Final offer." She smiled.

Xander looked at Cordelia carefully to see if she was bluffing, or maybe could be talked down to one outfit and the next three movies...but he didn't think so. He gave a mock shudder at the thought of shopping, though it was quite the horror. Her choosing the next three movies wouldn't be that bad, overall. So Xander just nodded. "Alright. You win."

"Well, naturally. Did you ever actually expect otherwise?" Cordelia asked, before unleashing her incredible megawatt smile.

**November 3rd, 1998**

**Sunnydale High School**

Xander walked next to Willow as they walked away from getting their yearbook pictures taken. It had been more annoying than he'd anticipated, having to pose for the camera that way; but Willow had seemed to love it. But now, perhaps not unexpectedly, the redhead was totally focusing on the upcoming Homecoming dance.

"...to help me pick out an outfit. I wanna wear something that makes Oz go, 'oh'." She grinned.

"Actually," Xander said hesitantly, he'd been hoping she'd say something like this so he could ease Willow into the 'accept Cordelia's help' thing. "I was thinking Cordelia could help you with that better than I could. Let's face it, no one knows fashion better than her!"

Willow rolled her eyes. "Cordelia wouldn't want to help me, Xander."

"Uh, well..." Xander said slowly. "I kind of already asked her, and she said yes."

"What? But why would she-?" Willow looked at him suspiciously. "Xander?"

"Would you believe, she's my girlfriend and I can be very persuasive?" Harris offered sheepishly.

"Xander." Willow said sternly. "Resolve face." Indeed, it was there.

He _really_ didn't want to tell her the truth, but then, Harris figured the lie (or lie by omission) about the Iron Coin was already bad enough. So he said, "I agreed to let her take me shopping, and buy me a few new outfits."

"Xander!" Willow knew how much he would have hated that.

"Hey, I just want this shindig to go well for you. And you gotta admit, Cordelia really does know this stuff the best."

"There you go calling it 'stuff' again, Xander." Cordelia said, smiling just a little, then she returned to scoping out the room, even as she walked closer towards them.

"Watchya doing?" Xander asked her.

"Checking out the – and I laughingly use the phrase – competition." Cordelia answered. She looked over at one girl, chatting with a couple of boys and playing with her hair. Oz chose that moment to come up and put an arm around Willow, much to the redhead's appreciation.

"Holly Charleston: nice girl, brain dead, doesn't have a prayer." Cordelia continued. She shifted her gaze to another girl, who was handing out flyers. "Michelle Blake: open to all mankind, especially those with a letterman's jacket and a car." She looked at Xander, concerned. "She could give me a run for my money." Xander couldn't help but smile at his girlfriend's antics. Even with all that they dealt with on a daily basis...Cordelia could still take this kind of thing so seriously. In a way, it was one of the many little quirks that he loved about her.

"Where's Buffy?" Willow asked, and both she and Oz looked around. "She's gonna miss the yearbook pictures."

"Buffy and Faith are in the library, training." Xander answered distractedly.

Oz raised an eyebrow, which considering the young man in question, was almost the equivalent of a worried frown. "I don't think she was here the day they announced them. Did anybody tell her?"

Cordelia waved a hand. "Oh, I'll tell her now. I have to go to the nurse's office for an ice pack, anyway."

Xander put his hand on her arm, feeling worried. "Did you hurt yourself?"

Cordelia smiled and nudged him gently. "No, silly. It shrinks the pores!" She walked off, but unlike what would have been...Xander followed after her. Which caused the Librarian to start screaming obscenities at the Jester in another dimension, all of which simply made the agent of Chaos smile in sheer ecstasy.

"I'll go with you." Xander said to Cordelia, blissfully unaware of that. "I need to talk to the G-man, anyway."

"You've been doing that a lot recently." Cordelia pointed out. "More than usual, I mean." She raised an eyebrow, as if expecting him to answer.

Xander thought for a moment, then said, "He's been teaching me Latin." He frowned a little. "It's slow-going, but then most of the important research books aren't written in English, and at least Latin has the same letters as English. Man, I don't even wanna think about trying to learn languages using runes or hieroglyphics!"

Cordelia looked at him carefully. "You're trying to make yourself more useful, right?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah." He saw the look on her face. "Cordelia, honey, no matter what we end up doing once high school's over, we're still gonna be here in Sunnydale up until next summer. So I wanna contribute however I can, on account of our lives might depend on it."

Cordelia had to concede the point there. They reached the library, but then Cordelia got distracted, going over to a couple of guys in order to canvass them for their votes regarding Homecoming Queen. "Mashad! Hi..."

Smiling a little, Xander shook his head. "And this is why I came along." Though he did also need to hand in his latest Latin sentence translations to Giles. He walked inside. "Hey, Buffy." Harris said, then pointed to the closed office door. "Giles in there?"

"Yep." Buffy said, then she added, "So, why do you need to talk to him? Is it about-" The senior Slayer quickly cut herself off, she didn't want to say 'the fact that you seem to be able to know the future?' as Faith was there.

"No, it's not that." Xander shook his head. He saw as Faith picked up on the hesitation, and knew she was wondering what it was that Buffy _hadn't_ said. "Believe it or not?" He held up the piece of paper that his Latin sentences had been written on. "Giles has me learning a dead language." He headed for the door, but then he turned back. "Oh, yeah, nearly forgot. Did you know that yearbook pictures are being taken today? They're almost done, too. Not sure if you were here, when they announced it."

"Yearbook pictures; that's today?!" Buffy exclaimed, dismayed. "I thought that was tomorrow!"

"Nope." Xander shook his head.

"Sorry, Faith, I gotta go!" Straightaway Buffy wiped her face with a towel, fixed her hair and makeup with the aid of a compact mirror, and then tore out of the library.

Faith just shrugged to herself, once Buffy was gone and Xander had entered Rupert's private office. "No skin off my nose, whatever."

And thus, Buffy Anne Summers never got the idea of running for Homecoming Queen...

**November 3rd, 1998**

**Chase Residence, Sunnydale**

The silver armored demon known as Skip had no idea what he was supposed to do right now. Because first off, the redhead was at the wrong house, and second, the Mother's boyfriend wasn't anywhere near the Wiccan wannabe tonight. So how the hell was he supposed to do that lust spell on the two of them, according to the boss's game plan? Because unfortunately, said boss was entirely unreachable at the moment to ask for new orders.

"Well, crap." It looked like he might have to improvise. And Skip _**hated**_ improvising. It was always so...messy.

"Personally, I've always found myself quite liking improvisation."

Skip turned around and saw an Armani-clad human with solid blue eyes. No, not human; definitely not. Not only was the smell all wrong, but Skip could feel the waves of power rolling off of this being, whatever it truly was. And given that neither of the girls were reacting to his presence, this guy had to be as invisible as Skip himself was.

"Okay, so who are you, and why are you reading my thoughts?" the demon mercenary asked politely enough.

The blue-eyed being smirked. "They call me the Jester. You might have heard of me."

_Awwww, shit! _Skip couldn't help but intake a deep, sharp breath. He had indeed heard about the Jester. The merc also knew that pissing off something that powerful was not conducive to his long-term health. Or survival. His employer could handle something like this guy, maybe, but definitely not him.

"Yeah, I've heard of you. So what are you doing here?" Skip maintained that cool, polite tone.

"Oh, you know, getting my kicks by watching certain people's well-laid plans go awry."

Worried, Skip asked. "Just for the record, since she's sure to ask; were you the one to screw up the boss's plan?"

The Jester shook his head. "Nope. That was all Xander Harris, oddly enough. To think, he's fast becoming my favorite mortal in this little town! And that's where you screwed the pooch, you know. Just assuming that he'd be in the right position, when you needed him to be."

"Wasn't my plan, pal, I'm just the hired help." Skip pointed out.

"True. And in my opinion, your boss makes her plans way too elaborate." The Jester smiled. "Tell her I said hi, will you? And that I wish her luck. Because she'll definitely need it." He laughed and vanished.

_Holy crap on a cracker. Betcha this won't go over well._ Skip morphed into black smoke and subsequently left the mortal plane himself.

**November 13th, 1998**

**Chase Residence, Sunnydale**

Thankfully, Homecoming had taken place without too much trouble – at least as far as Xander was personally concerned. Although Faith and Buffy, the first to be picked up by the limousine the Scooby Gang had rented to take them to the dance, **did** get hijacked into a remote part of the outskirts of Sunnydale. All in order to take part in a sick 'contest' hosted by Kakistos' former minion, Mr. Trick. Slayerfest '98, he'd called it. Complete with demons, the surviving Gorch brother and his undead wife, crazy high-tech German assassins and some weird wannabe mountain man.

As one might have expected, though, the bad guys all got their asses kicked by the Chosen Two, even though Mr. Trick escaped the Slayers' wrath by the time the 'fun' was all over. And after he heard about it from the Slayers, Xander had a feeling that that vampire was going to become the latest headache in Sunnydale for a while.

Concerned over how the limo had failed to pick them up, Willow, Oz, Cordelia and Xander had made their own way to the Bronze and waited for Faith and Buffy to join them. Harris had been worried that Faith had somehow found out about Angel, and that the two Slayers had had a major falling out over that. Still, his worries had been for naught; the two Slayers, having bonded over the life or death situation they'd found themselves in, had shown up just as the guy named Devon had announced Cordelia had been elected Homecoming Queen. Dirty, disheveled but still smiling broadly, the Chosen Two had clapped and cheered as the crown had been placed upon Cordelia's head and the head cheerleader had launched into her acceptance speech. Something memorable for how short it unexpectedly was, once Cordelia had caught sight of the Slayers.

Still, for all its epic nastiness, Slayerfest '98 didn't hold a candle to the Band Candy incident. And while from a certain point of view it had been funny as hell, it had also been somewhat traumatizing to witness all the teachers and adults – and even Principal Snyder – briefly revert to their teenage selves. Also, finding out the candy had been drugged by that old 'friend' of Giles, Ethan Rayne...just so a demon could get babies to eat? And that Trick was the one behind recruiting the chaos mage, in order for Lurconis to get his unholy meal?

_Yep. I knew he'd be trouble._ Xander thought to himself, as he held Cordelia in his arms and they watched _The Horse Whisperer_ together on the couch. _That guy Trick, he's definitely gonna be a problem. Well, until Buffy and Faith eventually deal with him, and dust his undead ass..._

"Hey, Xander?" Cordelia said sleepily.

"Yeah, Cor?"

"Were you planning to stay over tonight? 'Cause if you were...my parents aren't gonna be back from Catalina until tomorrow. And the maid, Lupe, she has the night off." Cordelia let her hand trail lazily down towards her boyfriend's southern regions, feeling gleeful over how...stiff...he'd just become. "What do you say...once the movie's over, you wanna fool around a little in my room?"

It was amazing how neither teenager could hear the screams of rage being emitted by Skip's employer within that higher dimension, which was the home of the Powers That Be, over how her plans (and that of Fate) were unraveling faster and faster with every passing moment.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That remains the property of Joss Whedon. The Jester, the Iron Coin, etc. and any other purely original material remains my property and all rights are reserved.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 6: The Big Reveal

**November 17th, 1998**

**Crawford Street Mansion, Sunnydale**

Xander kept one hand on the cross in his pocket, as he slowly (and carefully) walked into the abandoned mansion that Buffy had set Angel up in. Keeping a careful watch for the vampire – though he saw no sign of him in the main room of the structure – Harris walked further in, and called out. "Deadboy? You in here?"

"Xander."

Hearing the ensouled vampire's familiar voice directly behind him, Xander started, despite himself, and then turned around to face Angel. _God damn it, one of these days someone had __**got**_ _to attach a bell on to your undead ass; and for some reason, I'm hoping it'll be me..._

"I have to admit…" Angel said slowly, looking his visitor over. "You're the last person I expected to see here."

"And I half expected to find you asleep." Xander replied. He released his grip on the crucifix and took his hand out of his pocket, knowing full well that Angel knew exactly what he'd been doing. "It's daylight out, after all."

"Vampires are often active during the day. We just can't let sunlight-"

Xander rolled his eyes, not wanting to hear it. "I know that. Vampirism 101, got that memo _**years **_ago. But you guys still have to sleep eventually, right?"

"We do sleep, yeah." Angel acknowledged. "Just not as much or as often as humans need to."

"Hmm." Xander replied, looking thoughtful. "Interesting."

"Not really, no."

"Maybe not from the undead's perspective." Xander conceded. "But trying looking at it from my point of view, why don't you? Namely, Buffy and Faith hunting vamps during the daylight hours. The element of surprise isn't great as I thought it was."

"I see. So, why are you here?" Angel asked him.

Xander shrugged. "Not entirely sure, to be honest with you. Truth is I was kinda torn between wanting to talk with you, and set you on fire if you were asleep. I was also kinda thinking you'd still be chained up, but I shoulda known Buffy wouldn't leave you like that for long."

"She let me free of the chains a while back. And I'm not surprised about you wanting to kill me. And, speaking of which, how did you know Buffy was going to find me before she found me?" Angel asked, walking past Xander into the main room.

"I can't tell you." Xander replied. "Not won't; _**can't**_. And even if I could, I probably wouldn't. Because here's the thing, pal; I don't trust you. Never have, probably never will either."

"And I'm _so_ torn up about that." Angel replied facetiously.

"Was that sarcasm?" Xander looked astounded for a moment. "I didn't know that Hell could give you a sense of humor."

"It can't. And just for the record, did you think I didn't know?"

"Huh?" Xander didn't get it.

"I figured it out." Angel said stonily. "You lied to Buffy about Willow restoring my soul that morning. The way she fought, the way she acted...Buffy didn't know her best friend was going to do the curse again. And yet, she wasn't all that surprised when it happened, just as she was about to shove that sword through my chest. Add all that to what Buffy's mentioned since I came back..."

"Fine." Xander admitted. "I lied to her. Maybe I shouldn't have, maybe I should have trusted her to do the right thing regardless...but see, here's the thing; I couldn't. That morning when I looked into her eyes and had to make that decision, I just _**couldn't**_. Because as much as I hate to admit it, the Buffster can't think straight where you're concerned. If she'd known there was even one chance in a billion that Willow could pull off that sort of a miracle, and fresh out of a coma mind you, she'd have held back when she fought you and risked six billion people ending up in Hell. I'm not saying she would have done it in purpose, sure; but in my mind, the risk was just too great. And I make no apologies for my decision, least of all to you."

"Fine. You did the right thing, anyway." Angel looked back at Xander as he said that.

"Huh?" Harris wasn't sure if he was actually hearing things.

"I said, you did the right thing. As much as _I_ hate to admit it, I have to agree with you about what Buffy would have done." Angel said reflectively."She might not have done it deliberately, as you say, but the hope that the curse would work would have affected Buffy's fighting to some degree. All I - all Angelus would have needed was a split second, one instant where Buffy fought less than her best...and he'd have killed her, and damned us all. So that's why you did the right thing, regardless of what your motivations might have been that day."

Xander shook his head. "Okay, then let's move on. You don't like me, I don't like you, and that probably isn't going to change one way or the other."

"Then why are you here?" The vampire asked again.

"Because Buffy's still in love with you, and she's my friend, and I care about her. I'm here because when you're not evil, you've helped keep her alive, and I can't afford to let myself forget that. And finally, I'm here because Slay-gal thinks that you're worth trusting again, and you know what? I trust Buffy's judgment. Not her instincts, at least not where you're concerned; but I trust her to know the difference between right and wrong, and do the right thing. At the end of the day, I really do. Sure, she's not right every time, but she's right often enough, and well…she was kind of right about not killing you, back when we first found out you were a vampire. When you actually have that optional soul extra, you're one of the good guys."

"I'm touched." Angel said sarcastically, which immediately made Xander angry and defensive.

"Still, all that doesn't change the fact that I don't like you. I don't like vampires in general, and I don't like how you're only one perfectly happy moment away from going all psycho evil again –"

"NO! No." Angel said rapidly, shaking his head. "Buffy and I…we won't…we can't...that's never going to happen again."

"I hope so, for both your sakes. But problem is you two, you've got this big forever love, the whole Romeo and Juliet thing, going. And Buffy isn't going to deal well, when it finally dawns on her that you two can't ever have that sort of relationship again. I just did the Cliff Notes on that one, I'll admit..."

"I already told you, it won't happen again. Not now that I finally know about the loophole in the curse. And for the last time, why exactly are you here?" Angel asked yet again. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't just to warn me to stay as miserable as possible for the rest of eternity."

"Well, what do you know? You do have a brain, after all. Fine, you want the truth?" Xander asked rhetorically. "I came here to tell you that I'm telling Faith about you. She's the new Slayer in town, in case no one's mentioned it; the girl who was Called after Kendra was murdered by your insane 'daughter'. And I figured you deserved fair warning concerning what I'm about to do, just in case she doesn't jive to the 'Angel is a good guy' mantra."

Angel frowned. "I thought you said you trusted her?"

"I do. But there's something else that's a pressing issue, buddy boy. Namely - sooner or later, the secret that you're hiding here is going to get out, it'll become public knowledge you somehow escaped from Hell. Giles promised Buffy that he wouldn't tell anyone, and so did I...but...well, if the news comes out the wrong way, I'm thinking Faith might try to stake you first and ask questions, like, never. And even if the latest member of the Chosen crowd doesn't succeed, Buffy…well, she's not going to take it well. And from what your girlfriend has told me about that fight she and Kendra once had, back when that girl first showed up in your old apartment…call me paranoid if you want, but in my book Slayer-on-Slayer type violence isn't something to look forward to. So, at some point, Faith needs to be told you're back. And while I do trust Buffy…she should have told everyone else by now…and if she's not going to, I will."

Harris shrugged. "I just felt you deserved the heads up." And with that, Xander headed for the front doors of the mansion.

"Thanks." Angel muttered, but in such a low voice that the male teen couldn't hear him. He watched Harris depart and thought to himself, _Maybe I misjudged the boy, and he's actually starting to grow up. Then again, from the way I can smell that Cordelia girl all over him, maybe Harris is still the same judgemental, hormonal idiot he ever was..._

**November 17****th****, 1998**

**Chase Residence, Sunnydale**

As Xander walked into Cordelia's house after the maid let him in – her parents were away, which was an occurrence that was becoming more and more common these days – he was still thinking about how he was going to break the big news about Angel to Faith. Frankly, it would probably be best to break it to Oz and Willow at the same time, if he was going to do something like that...still...

He should probably at least offer Buffy one more chance to tell everyone, give her one more day to tell the gang the Big Secret.

Of course, one person Xander _didn't_ need to alert about Angel was Cordelia, as she already knew. Granted, Xander had had misgivings about telling his girlfriend about Angel's presence. He'd spent a lot of time debating it with himself, before he'd finally decided to tell her a week ago.

It was a touchy issue, to be sure. On the one hand, Xander had promised Buffy that he wouldn't tell anyone else, and when he'd said it, he'd meant it. On the other hand, he didn't like keeping things from Cordelia. It didn't feel right, and keeping the Iron Coin secret – not that he really had a choice about that, he supposed – was bad enough. _Though I'm never, ever telling her about that vision of me and Willow..._Xander inadvertently shuddered just a little. He'd managed to avoid that particular scenario, praise be all that was good and holy...which made him wonder when – not if – Fate was going to try again to get back at him, and how it would happen. Or if the agents of Fate would try some other plan to mess up his relationship with Cordelia, and Willow's with Oz...

Xander's mind quickly went back to the issue he'd been thinking about before, leaving that subject for another time. With regard to Angel, landing squarely in the 'don't tell Cordelia' column was the very basic fact that the Chase girl was blunt and tactless even at the best of times. Which, frankly, was not such a bad thing, overall. He liked that trait of hers, sometimes; especially when Cordelia forced him to face things he'd rather ignore. But on the downside, it meant that, in this case, if he told Cordelia about Angel, there were very good odds that she would bring it up with Buffy, in a sort of 'what the hell are you thinking?' and that just wouldn't play out.

Despite the understanding they'd reached in the library when Buffy had confronted him and Giles about his foreknowledge of Angel...Xander could tell that nowadays, Buffy just didn't trust him as much as she used to. There was a slight hesitancy, at times, when she talked to him...and Giles had, somewhat predictably, taken Buffy's side. In the face of the unknown and potentially dangerous, _of course_ the Watcher would side with his Slayer. . It wasn't all that noticeable, and it wasn't even that bad, when you got right down to it...it would probably only last a short time, overall, but still...

If Cordelia let slip that Xander had told her about Angel, after he'd promised not to tell anyone else, that he would let Buffy tell everyone in her own way and in her own good time...the current truce probably wouldn't be lasting for long.

However, on the 'Tell Cordelia' side of things was the fact that when Xander had made that promise Buffy...that he wouldn't tell anyone, that he would let Buffy tell everybody the big secret...he'd expected her to wait a week, maybe two at the most, before telling everyone else that Angel was back.

By the time he'd finally told Cordelia, though, it had been just under three weeks. And now, of course, it was nearly a month.

So yes, Xander knew he'd broken his promise, and he'd mentally braced himself for Cordelia to go off on Buffy and let it slip. Fortunately, though, his girlfriend hadn't done anything of the sort; although she had sent some special glares in Buffy's direction from time to time. Something Buffy had noticed, and had even asked him why Cordelia was acting like that.

The number of lies and concealment growing ever higher, Xander had successfully pleaded ignorance.

As Xander arrived at his girlfriend's bedroom, he found Cordelia in her four-room suite finishing up a homework assignment. Unlike Xander himself, the head cheerleader had excellent prospects for college, and was determined to do well enough to get into the best Ivy League schools. Though how much of that was what Cordelia wanted, and how much of it was her parents' expectations was another matter entirely.

Xander's goal was just to graduate high school alive and with a degree. After that? He'd have to figure out what he was going to do in terms of earning a living, but right now he had no idea what that might be. It wasn't like he could use the Iron Coin to make himself rich...well, he assumed he couldn't, anyway. The Jester almost certainly wouldn't let that happen; where would the fun be if his mortal puppet could pull off something like that?

Sighing inaudibly, Xander leaned on the doorway and watched Cordelia continue her work. She didn't love school work like Willow did, or hunt down knowledge like some predatory animal the way his oldest friend did; but she was also far from a vapid idiot, despite how the brunette had occasionally acted in the past. _Damn, but she looks so beautiful,_ Xander thought to himself smiling. _I don't know how, but even without trying, Cordy can make doing homework look sexy! I swear, sometimes I wonder how I manage to keep my libido in check..._

That was a good question, actually. The topic of where their relationship was going had been raised a few times recently. The other night, while they'd been watching a very romantic movie, Xander had definitely noticed all the signals his girlfriend had been sending him. So Harris suspected Cordelia might give him one hell of a Christmas present this year; or, maybe it would happen either on his 18th birthday or hers (there was only a month's difference, after all). Then again, with his luck, Xander might just die a virgin...

Finally, after a few minutes, Cordelia realized her boyfriend was standing at the doorway looking at her. She turned to face him and said,"You dork, how long have you been there?"

"Few minutes." Xander shrugged. He nodded to her homework. "You done?" They had been planning on going to the Bronze tonight, and it was getting close to time to head out there. Xander instinctively checked to make sure he had the usual gear for dealing with vampires. Cross on a thin chain around his neck – he almost never took that off anymore – larger cross in one pocket, vial of holy water and of course, the ever-trusty stake. He knew Cordelia almost always had a stake and wore a cross around her neck as well.

_That's what living on the Hellmouth does to you, I suppose._

"So, after we end up leaving Sunnydale, are you still going to go out every night with all that?" Cordelia asked, as she wrote one more thing quickly on her homework sheet and then got up, grabbing the stake Giles had given her last year.

_Ah, yes, because it's so totally a certain 'when'..._ Biting his tongue, Xander nodded. "Probably. I'd rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them, right?"

Seeing Cordelia shrug carelessly Harris straightened up and stepped aside so she could walk out of the bedroom suite. _God-damn, she even has a sexy walk! Oh, man, what is wrong with me? I can't stop thinking about sex, even for a minute? _Shrugging to himself after realizing the answer was most likely 'no', Xander followed her towards the front door of the mansion, and they were soon on their way to the Bronze.

**November 17****th****, 1998**

**Sunnydale High Library**

"Hey, Giles." Xander said as he walked into the library after escorting Cordelia back home. It was late, but as usual Giles was still in the library even at this late an hour. _Guess that's another thing we have in common; the houses we live in aren't exactly a 'home'. How the heck Giles can still live in that place after he found Ms. Calendar murdered in there is, like, totally beyond me! _Xander winced for a moment, reminded of Angel yet again. He'd wanted to talk to Giles about telling Faith the Big Secret...how best to frame the whole 'one of the most murderous vampires in history is in Sunnydale and Buffy's been hiding him – but it's okay, since he has a soul – unless Buffy gives him another happy...' thing in the best light possible.

_Not saying it like __**that**__ would probably be a very good start..._ Harris mused as he walked further into the library. No sign of Giles. But the doors were unlocked and the light was on, so odds were that the Watcher was going to be coming back soon, wherever he had gone off to.

Despite his efforts., Xander hadn't gone through all the books here yet in his hunt for more information about the Iron Coin, the Jester, Fate, Chaos, the Hydra, and more. Granted, he'd made little to no progress so far. He'd found a few scattered legends about certain things, but they didn't seem like the Jester, or the way he'd described Fate and Chaos. There _was_ mention in one book - written in very archaic Latin that he'd only processed half of - of 'servitors of Fate', creations that acted to ensure destiny and prophecy went according to plan. Whether that actually meant anything, assuming he hadn't mistranslated the words, was currently unknown. So possibly, they might be things he might have to deal with.

Up on the mezzanine level Xander quickly delved deep into a couple of books, curiously - his search for information on Fate and Chaos accidentally led to text that chronicled the lives and deeds of particularly noteworthy demonic warlords, which he found himself engrossed in. It was when he was reading a section on a demon called Lagos that the door opened. Xander lowered the book and looked past the shelves for a moment. Buffy, Faith, Giles entering the room, check, check, check...

It was all Xander could do to contain a strangled gasp, though, when he saw the woman following them.

It was the woman from the vision, the one with that weird glove. The evil psycho-Watcher.

_Oh, shit_.

Xander slunk back behind the bookshelf and found himself on the verge of hyperventilating, though he was damned if he knew why. For once, he actually had the advantage; Harris knew what the bad guy was, whereas she would know nothing about him. So Xander slowly, and quietly, moved a bit farther back behind the shelves. As the four approached the table and both Buffy and Faith stood next to the table, the junior Slayer broke the silence that had followed them in.

"Look, like I told you on the way here, I don't need a new Watcher. No offense, lady, but I just have this problem with authority figures. They end up kind of dead." Having said that Faith sat down, letting the sarcasm permeate the air.

The woman walked behind the table and looked at the books, casually and dismissively. "Duly noted. Fortunately, it's not up to you." Faith and Buffy looked at each other and one rolled her eyes, the other merely shrugging.

"Mr. Giles, where do you keep the rest of your books?" The English-accented woman asked in that slightest hint of scorn and mocking but still impossibly polite way that only the British seemed able to pull off.

"I-I'm sorry. The rest?" Giles semi-spluttered.

"Yes, the actual library." The woman replied coolly. Then she said, "Oh. I see..."

"I can assure you, Mrs. Post, this is the finest occult reference collection..."

The woman – _Mrs Post_, Xander corrected himself – interrupted Giles. "...this side of the Atlantic, I'm sure. Do you have Hume's 'Paranormal Encyclopedia'?" Xander didn't hear a reply from Giles. "The Labyrinth Maps of Malta?"

This time Giles did reply, his voice just a bit sheepish, and surprisingly soft. "It's on order..."

"Well, I suppose that you have Sir Robert Kane's 'Twilight Compendium'?" Mrs. Post asked next.

"Oh! Uh...yes, I...yes! Yes, I do." Giles added, the note of pride in his voice was...surprising.

"Of course you do." Mrs. Post didn't sound impressed, and Xander could easily imagine the haughty look on the woman's face. "Well, let's get down to business. I have been sent by the Council for a very important reason. Faith needs a Watcher. I am to act in that capacity and report back."

"Excuse me, Mary Poppins, you don't seem to be listening." Faith interrupted, a note of anger in her voice. Giles, probably still smarting from the rebuke his fellow countrywoman had just delivered, interrupted Faith before she could proceed further.

"Faith, if the Council feels that you need closer observation, then...we will all, of course, cooperate."

Mrs. Post wasn't finished, though. "The Council wishes me to report on the _**entire**_ situation here. Including you, Mr. Giles."

"Mm!" Buffy said, a note of amusement in her voice. "Academic probation's not so funny today, huh Giles?" Xander had to stifle a laugh at that, wishing he'd come up with that line. Mrs. Post continued. "The fact is, there is talk in the Council that you have become a bit too..." she inhaled sharply. "American."

Almost in unison Buffy and Giles protested. "Me?" "Him?"

Xander couldn't help it. He laughed out loud at the idea that Giles had become 'too American'. He walked out from behind the shelves and down the stairs to the main part of the library, four pairs of eyes on him as he did so. "Giles? Too American?" He laughed again. "Yeah, I'll believe that when he stops demanding that I keep putting all those unnecessary 'u's in the words I translate from Latin."

"When the language is called 'Americanish' and not English, _**then**_ you can decide what is and what isn't unnecessary in terms of spelling a word correctly, Xander." Giles shot back, looking mildly irritated.

"You don't pronounce the 'u', you don't need the 'u'. Thus, unnecessary." Xander smirked and set the book he'd been reading on the top of the shelf beneath the railing.

"I'm sorry, we haven't been properly introduced. Manners..." Mrs. Post looked askance at Giles, who looked away before the British woman turned back to the bearer of the Iron Coin. "Who are you?"

"I was going to ask you the same question when you walked in, but from the accent and the clothes and well," Xander gestured to her for a moment, "everything else, you're obviously a Watcher. From what I just heard, you're here for Faith?"

"Yes..." Mrs, Post said slowly, looking confused for a moment, before she looked at Giles again. "I'm assuming you're one of Miss Summers' friends. Ah yes. I remember now, the Council file mentioned your inexcusable inability to keep things secret..." She looked the male teen over for a moment. "You would be Xander Harris, then?"

"Hey, lady, the entire town around here is on a freaking Hellmouth." Buffy replied, rolling her eyes. "It's kind of hard _not_ to notice that demons and vampires aren't out there. That more people don't know about them, especially after living here all their lives, is the confusing thing! Well, it's more that they refuse to accept it, sure, but..."

"The aid of Xander and the others who have joined the fight, as it were, has been invaluable in keeping things as under control as they are, around here. Without Xander's help, Buffy would have been long dead by now, and it's entirely possible that the defeat of the apocalypse demon known as the Judge would have been impossible." Giles interjected. "And before we continue to get sidetracked on this subject, shall we continue with what you had in mind to say?"

"Yes." Mrs. Post replied tersely. After a moment to gather her thoughts, she continued. "A demon named Lagos is coming here to the Hellmouth. Mr. Giles, an illustration of Lagos, if you please." Scorn dripped from her words, oozing across the floor.

_Do you really have to act like such a complete bitch?_ Xander couldn't help wanting to ask, but he managed to contain it_. I know you're a black hat and all, but yeesh! You'd think that subtlety would be up your alley a bit more..._

Flustered, Giles started to look through the books on the table."Oh, uh...yes. Uh..."

Xander cleared his throat and picked up the book he'd been perusing recently, opening it to the passage he'd been reading. "You mean this Lagos?" He handed the open book to Giles, who showed it to Buffy and Faith.

"Ah, yes." Mrs. Post replied, looking thrown off by Xander's quick response. _Good, bitch. "_Now according to my information, Lagos seeks the Glove of Myhnegon. No record of this glove's full power exists, but we do know it is highly dangerous and must not fall into the hands of a demon. So Lagos must be stopped."

"What do you propose we do, then?" Giles asked.

"Well, if it's not too radical a suggestion, I thought we might kill him." Mrs. Post said snootily.

"Does he have his army with him?" Xander asked.

"I'm sorry, what?" Mrs. Post looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Army?" Faith interjected. "Lady, you want me to go up against an entire demon army? Because hey, I'm good, but I'm not suicidal!"

"According to the book, this guy has an army." Xander replied. "I mean, since he's notable enough to have an entry complete with an illustration in the book on account of he's a powerful interdimensional warlord with twelve legions at his command – plus he stood up to some Archduke Sebassis guy, and won? If this Lagos character's here in Sunnydale looking for this Glove you mentioned, what are the odds he brought his army with him?"

"Very small." The female Watcher replied. "The magical energy required to bring even himself here would have been astronomical. So it will be just him, most likely. I suggest two Slayers at full strength for a coordinated hunt." Xander saw Buffy and Faith exchange look. "The Council believes the Glove to be buried in a tomb somewhere in Sunnydale, so doubtless Lagos will be headed for the cemetery."

"There is more than one in Sunnydale." Giles pointed out.

"I see. How many?" Mrs. Post demanded.

"Uh, twelve, actually."

Mrs. Post took a deep breath and Xander noticed that she looked quite perturbed for just a moment. "Well, we'll just have to take them one at a time." Giles started to look through his books. "Anything in your books that might pinpoint the exact location of the tomb would be useful, but then, we cannot ask for miracles." Giles let his book drop to the table and quite obviously didn't look at his so-called colleague. If the other Watcher cared, she didn't show any sign that she did. "We will begin tomorrow at sunset. Faith, come with me, please." She turned around and left.

Faith looked at Buffy, who shrugged, then got up.

"Be careful around her." Xander said to the younger Chosen One. "I think she's hiding something. I don't trust her." _Of course she's hiding something. She's evil psycho-bitch, even if I can't tell anyone how I know that._

"Never planned on trusting her." Faith replied coolly, before following the female Watcher out of the library.

"Well." Giles declared. "That was bracing."

"Interesting lady. Can we kill her?" Buffy asked, perhaps only a quarter serious.

Giles shook his head. "I think the Council might frown upon that."

"There's another thing the Council might frown on, while we're on the subject. At the very least, I'm certainly starting to." Xander said after a moment. "Why haven't you told her?"

Buffy didn't need to ask what Xander meant by that. "I'm not ready to tell Faith about Angel...or anyone else, for that matter. It's too-"

"What? Too soon? Buffy, not to sound insensitive, since I can't relate to your problem at all, but it doesn't matter if you're not ready to talk about it! Because what the hell do you think will happen when Faith finds out on her own? She'll try to kill him, and either we'll end up with a dusty Deadboy or Angel will have to kill or seriously hurt Faith to survive. And she _will_ find out on her own if you don't tell her, don't you get that?" Harris saw thestubborn look on the blonde Slayer's face., and exhaled wearily. "No, obviously, you don't. Buffy, come on - you're smarter than this, do you really think that you can keep something as big as Angel a secret forever?".

"No! Not forever, just long enough-"

"Buffy," Xander interrupted again. "Look at everything that's happened over the last two years. What's our track record been like? I mean, sure, concerning the big things like staying alive and making sure the world's still there in the morning, we do pretty good. But on the smaller things? Like keeping secrets from people who have a right to know? I think the technical term to describe our luck there, and correct me if I'm wrong Giles, is 'shitty'."

"If I tell her, Faith's just going to try to kill Angel straightaway!" Buffy protested.

"Not necessarily." Xander disagreed. "She's never met Angelus. The rest of us? We've all had a good look at him, up close and personal. Maybe you don't get it, Buff, but unlike you...I could still see Angelus lurking underneath the surface, that time I went to visit your honey at that damned mansion of his. I can't pretend Angelus isn't there, _all the time_! That's why whenever I see Angel, I have this visceral desire to stake him."

"I'm sorry – did you just use visceral properly in a sentence?" Giles interrupted incredulously.

"I did, try not to faint." Xander replied with an annoyed-slash-amused look. Then he turned back to Buffy and his expression grew more grave, the humor gone from his entire expression in seconds. "Buffy... look, I don't want Angel dead. Or Faith to end up dead or seriously hurt. I'll admit, I wouldn't be all that upset if Angel got seriously hurt, but hey! I'm not perfect. But the important thing is, Faith _**needs to know**_. If you don't tell her and she finds out on her own, think what that will mean for whatever trust you two might have! I mean, you guys put each other's lives in your hands every night, when you patrol together or go hunting a specific demon together or whatever." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Buff. But enough's enough; if you won't tell her, I will."

"But you said-" Buffy protested, but there was...the protest was almost half-hearted. Not quite.

Harris sighed tiredly. "Yeah, I know what I said. But come on, Buffy! I was expecting you to 'fess up to everyone within...a week, say. Maybe two at the most. Not a whole freaking month, almost..." He sighed again and looked away.

Buffy didn't say anything for several minutes, staring at nothing. Giles somewhat awkwardly busied himself with the books on the table, gathering them up and putting them back on the shelf. Xander stuck his hand in his pockets, and one hand half-consciously touched the Iron Coin.

Finally, Buffy spoke, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "You..." She paused. "Xander, you do have a point. It's a good point...a very point-y argument." She nodded. "All right. I'll tell Faith. Right now." Buffy took a deep breath and stood up. She nodded to Xander and Giles and then left the library.

Xander watched her leave and thought to himself, _I hope this works..__._

**November 18****th****, 1998** **Faith's Apartment, Sunnydale**

Xander knocked on the door of the new apartment Faith now lived in, courtesy the Council's rent money, and waited for her to answer. After a minute, the door opened and the dark-haired Slayer stood at the threshold. "Xander."

"Hey Faith." He gestured past her. "Can I come in?"

"You oughta know better than to ask for an invitation, Harris. What do you want?" Faith asked, raising an eyebrow and looking him over.

"To talk." Xander saw the look on Faith's face when he said that, and rolled his eyes. "And to ask you a question. Whether or not Buffy's told you the Big Secret."

Faith nodded after a moment, then stepped aside wordlessly. Xander walked into the apartment and Faith closed the door behind him.

"Yeah. B told me the Big Secret." Faith didn't look at him as she said that. "Wouldn't tell me where her undead lover is, but she told me he was back from Hell and living in Sunnydale. Really big on the 'he's got a soul' thing. Said that, what, had to be at least five times."

"So you're not tempted to track Angel down and stake him?" Xander asked bluntly.

Faith shook her head. "There's more than enough vamps to kill around here without going after B's undead sex toy. Especially if he's supposed to be a White Hat." She shrugged. "If I knew where he was, I'd probably be tempted to take him out...far as I'm concerned, a vamp's a vamp, soul or otherwise. But if he's a good guy again, then what the hell; let bygones be bygones, and all that shit. But if he ever goes evil again? I won't have a problem with taking him down."

"Good." Xander said. "And...I'm glad you're not interested in staking him on general principles. Makes everyone's life easier."

"You really don't like him, huh? B was pretty clear on that...though she also said you pointed out to her that telling me would be a good idea." Faith paused for just a second. "I appreciate that."

Xander nodded. "She would have figured that out soon if I hadn't, I think. I hope." He paused, then added, "You going hunting for Lagos and this Glove thing tonight, then?"

"Yeah." Faith replied with a shrug. "Got the marching orders from my new Watcher. Supposed to listen to her, apparently."

"Where is she?" Xander looked around.

"Out buying me some groceries, if you can believe that." Faith said, snorting with laughter a little. Xander couldn't help but chuckle as well. "She didn't like the state of my refrigerator, apparently. She 'disapproved.'" Faith added air quotes at the end.

"I know we just met and all, but British Watcher lady sure seemed to disapprove of a lot of things." Xander pointed out, trying to use subtlety to lead Faith on what to conclude about Mrs. Post.

"Seems like it." Faith replied. "She'd better stop trying to order me around, though. On account of I tend to 'disapprove' of that."

**November 18****th****, 1998**

**The Bronze, Sunnydale**

Before Xander could sit down at the table within the packed nightclub, the one where Willow, Oz and Cordelia were sitting at already, the redhead immediately bombarded him with a question he hadn't been expecting from her.

"You _knew_!? Why didn't you tell us?" Willow semi-shouted.

Xander paused a moment, then sat down. "So, Buffy told you about you-know-who?" Harris asked her.

"Well, yeah!" Willow replied forcefully. "She told all of us! But what I wanna know is, how did _**you**_ know before we did? And why didn't you tell us?!"

"Buffy didn't tell you about that part of it?" Xander asked carefully.

"No."

_Sweet Jesus, thank you for that._ "Okay, well, I was there in the library when Buffy talked with Giles about it. And as to why I didn't tell you, that's because I promised Buffy I wouldn't." That was the truth and nothing but the truth, but it wasn't the _**whole**_ truth by any means.

"But you told her!" Willow gestured at Cordelia.

"Well, duh!" Cordelia interjected hotly. "_**Of course**_ Xander told me. He's my boyfriend! And you're not supposed to keep things like that secret from the person you're dating!"

"Well, I've been his friend longer than he's been your boyfriend, and Xander still didn't tell me!" Willow countered. And things just started to go totally downhill from there. These days Willow and Cordelia usually managed to get on well enough, granted, even if the Chase girl had said she really didn't like Willow or vice-versa. But sometimes...sometimes...

Xander looked at Oz. "Wanna go get 'em some drinks from the bar?"

The werewolf looked at the two bickering girls and then nodded. "Sure."

Thus, the two boys got up and headed to order drinks for their women and themselves. The current 'conversation' between Willow and Cordelia meant their throats would soon get parched enough for handy refreshments...

**November 20****th****, 1998**

**Sunnydale High Library**

The whole gang, including, even, the new Watcher Mrs. Post – whose first name turned out to be 'Gwendolyn' – _A more British name has never been heard, _minus Buffy and Faith was in the library, avidly researching the Glove. More specifically, on how to destroy it.

Xander knew that Angel had found it two days ago, and was keeping it safe in his mansion. After all, just about every demon and vampire in Sunnydale knew where the Watcher and the Slayer based themselves. Storing the glove here or at Giles's condo or at 1630 Revello Drive, would serve no purpose but to put it somewhere Lagos would look for it. In any case, the library doors opened and everyone turned to see the three people entering. Faith was holding the Glove, which was wrapped up in rags, plus Buffy and Angel were flanking her closely.

_And...now it's going to happen._ Xander saw the excited look in Gwendolyn Post's eyes as she approached Faith. As the female Watcher did that, Xander slowly moved into position. If everything went as he expected it would...

_Obviously, she wants the Glove. And even more obviously, she can't let us destroy it. We already have some of the ingredients we need to destroy it...there... _Harris looked, seeing the urn again. Carrying out the spell to turn fire into Living Flame was not as easy as one would think.

"Lagos?" Post asked, eagerly.

"Dead." Buffy said succinctly. "Faith killed him."

"Well, you helped too." Faith replied, then qualified her reply. "A little, anyway."

Angel started to step back, but Giles called out his name. "Angel."

"Yes?" The haunted look on the vampire's face was unmistakeable, as he looked at the British man he could remember torturing gleefully a few months ago.

"You did well to find the Glove and keep it safe, I grant you. But should I ever see you in this library again, I will not be satisfied with just letting you leave unscathed." Giles said icily.

"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed, horrified.

Xander ignored the argument that started between Giles and Buffy, likewise, Angel ignored it as he slipped out the double doors without looking back.

Gwendolyn Post nodded to Faith. "Give me the Glove, Faith. It needs to be handled carefully." Faith immediately handed it to her like it was on fire. The British woman shook her head. "You're fine for now, but it is a highly magical and powerful artifact that cannot be treated lightly." She gingerly took the Glove and walked towards Giles's office. She didn't notice Xander near the door. Or the baseball bat that he had stashed a few feet from where he was standing.

Gwendolyn went into the librarian's office and closed the door. No one seemed to notice; Buffy and Giles continued arguing, with Cordelia and Willow joining in; perhaps not unexpectedly, Willow on Buffy's side, and Cordelia on Giles's. And of course, all of them ignored Gwen. But not Xander.

Moments later, the office door opened and a blast of lightning flew out, hitting the urn. The vessel blew up, the flames vanishing as shards and dust flew everywhere, and the other items near it were destroyed, broken or otherwise rendered useless. Another lightning blast flew out, hitting a bookshelf, destroying books and sending more flying as the shelf acquired a brand new gaping hole.

_Interesting decorative choice, _Xander thought to himself, the only one not stunned by the latest act of Hellmouth weirdness.

A cruel laugh came out from Giles' office. A woman's laugh.

"What the hell?" Faith looked away from the argument between B and Jeeves, which she'd been watching with little real interest – as everyone else stopped arguing.

"Faith." Gwendolyn Post walked out of the office, the Glove on her arm, the spikes at the top dug deep into her right arm. "You're an idiot." She raised the Glove, aiming it at the dark-haired Slayer.

"Actually," Xander said from behind her and to the left, reaching for the bat, "That would be you."

So saying, Harris swung the bat, hard, hitting her square on the temple. Out like a light, Mrs. Post fell to the ground. She missed hitting her head on the main desk by a hair's breadth, as the Glove crackled with electricity.

Xander looked around at everyone else and dropped the bat. He shrugged as if it was nothing. "Someone might want to get the Glove off her arm, before she comes to."

"Good Lord..." Giles looked stunned, as he stared at Gwendolyn's body. "She actually..."

"It can't come off," Buffy said, looking just as flabbergasted as her Watcher. "Angel told me that once you put it on, you...Angel? Where the hell did he go?" She looked around in dismay.

"So, what's that mean? Do we have to kill the evil Watcher, in order to stop her from using that thing on us?" Faith asked, looking around at the others.

Another argument instantly broke out, but Xander decided to stay out of it, offering to take Cordelia home instead. Besides, he had the feeling there would be a lot of questions coming his way soon, like how he'd managed to have a convenient baseball bat handy to knock out the bad guy...


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All original content is mine, however.

Thanks to Starway Man, my Beta. Not just for his post-writing edits and the like, but also for his plot development and sounding board services.

I have no real excuse for the absence. Exams, papers, writers block, travel, summer job applications, Bigfoot, alien abduction. Take your pick. Things are going to pick up as we go, however.

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 1

By Alkeni

Episode 7: The Other Shoe

**November 22****nd****, 1998**

**1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale**

One of the greatest things about being friends with Buffy Summers, Xander had long ago decided, was her mother's cooking. Always eager to eat somewhere that wasn't his house, Xander therefore took every opportunity possible to eat at Buffy's place. Those opportunities tended to crop up about once a month, give or take.

And it wasn't just that he got to eat somewhere that wasn't _el casa Harris_, or that he got to spend time with his friends, both of which were good things on their own and would have been more than enough reason for Xander to look forward to them. But it was also that Mrs. Summers cooked _**very**_ nice meals. He'd heard, from Buffy, horror stories about some of her mother's occasional adventures in culinary experimentation; but so far, the results of those experiments hadn't made their way to the table when he was eating at the Summers household.

In addition to Buffy, Willow, Oz and Cordelia were present tonight, as well as Faith. Angel wasn't present, for very understandable reasons, and neither was Giles. Xander frowned; it seemed like that guy had been avoiding Buffy's mom lately, and he had no idea why. Granted, though, Xander hadn't spent all that much time hanging with either the G-man or Mrs. S in recent weeks, so that was hardly surprising.

Until dessert was ready, the meal was over, and everyone was more or less just chilling out. Willow and Oz were making eyes at one another, and Faith was watching TV. Xander was just sitting by himself, as he noticed Cordelia and Buffy were talking about, of all things, clothes.

Xander frowned as he remembered how his girlfriend had spent yesterday, and most of today, for that matter, in Los Angeles. Her parents had dragged her to a social function at, of all places, her father's law firm, Wolf and something or another – he hadn't really paid attention to the name – and shown her off to all concerned more like a prized possession, rather than a daughter. Cordelia, in exchange, had gone and racked up a truly massive bill on one of her fathers' credit cards by shopping for clothes and shoes in L.A., as soon as the social function was over. The bright side, Miss Chase had once said, of parents who didn't pay her all that much attention was that, as long as she didn't screw up, she could spend their money with almost reckless abandon; which she was _**exactly**_ what she had done in the City of Angels.

Xander smiled, just a little, as he recalled how happy Cordelia had looked when she'd arrived back in town with all those clothes that she'd bought. He had never understood, and probably never would understand, how his girlfriend could possibly enjoy shopping so much. Or, frankly, her seeming obsession with having so many shoes and clothes – though she certainly looked good in everything she bought – which struck him as being more than a little materialistic. Still, Xander did appreciate the fact that shopping made her happy. He may not have shared her love of shopping, but he did know how much Cordy loved it, and that was reason enough to tolerate all the babble about Ralph Lauren and Jimmy Choo's and whatever other girl talk that came out of the brunette's mouth.

_And that's not just me appreciating the __**other**_ _talents my girl has, where her mouth's concerned_! Xander smirked to himself, recalling the other night's make-out session. Cordelia had been wanting to make the most of his presence before departing Sunnydale for the big city, and whatever he'd thought Cordelia had been capable of achieving with her lips and her tongue, she'd _**surpassed**_ every expectation Xander had possessed. And then some, what with the cheerleader's efforts to reach the back of his neck from the front. Their evening together had seemed to make her happy...

Xander had to admit it to himself; he liked Cordelia being happy. When she was happy, he was happy. And not just because a happier Cordelia was a Cordelia who tended to be more affectionate, although that was certainly something he didn't object to.

But, and Xander was slowly coming to realize this, it was more than that. The simple fact of the matter was that when Cordelia was happy...so was he. Just because she was happy.

_May as well face it, buddy boy. You might just have fallen head over heels in love with this girl_. _And who'da thunk it, from the way you two were always tearing into one another for all those years?_

That was a thought that had been occurring in Xander's mind, in one form or another, quite frequently recently. _Am I in love with Cordelia Chase? _He was startled out of his musings by Cordelia almost immediately after that thought, though.

"So whatever happened to Psycho-Watcher?" The Homecoming Queen asked, looking around inquisitively. "After Giles cut off her arm where that demon-y glove thing was attached, I mean, so that she couldn't kill us all after she woke up?"

"I dunno. I think the tea-addicts from merrie olde England showed up and took her away, didn't they?" Faith answered, looking to Buffy, who was the most likely one to actually remember.

Buffy nodded. "Yeah. Even though according to Giles, Mrs. Post-It was actually already expelled from the Council by the time she showed up here."

"You'd think that they'd send out some kind of memo about that." Oz commented, stringing far more words together than he usually did.

"Oh, hey, they did!" Buffy said with a half-smirk. "Giles just never got around to reading it. He eventually found it buried under a stack of books in his office."

"Yeah, well, let's just hope that the Watchers' Council doesn't send out a memo on the impending end of the world, then." Xander chuckled a little.

"That would at least have to merit a phone call, right?" Oz asked.

"With any luck." Willow nodded, before she looked at Xander. "Speaking of luck, and Mrs. Post, how come you had that baseball bat all handy like that? I mean it was kinda lucky that you had it when she came out of Giles' office and you could just clonk her right on the head like that. Nice hit, by the way." Willow added, her voice speeding up quite a bit by the time she got to the end of her minor babble-fest.

Xander shrugged and lied glibly. "The bat's not mine, Will. I dunno, someone musta left it there. I'm pretty sure it was in there for a few days, anyway."

Buffy shook her head and, with a suspicious frown on her face, she replied, "I'm pretty sure it wasn't, Xander. _**I**_ certainly didn't see it laying around anywhere."

Xander shot her an annoyed look. _Not. Helping. Buffy!_ Harris thought to himself. He was pretty sure this was payback both for forcing the Chosen One to spill the beans about Angel to the rest of the Scooby Gang when she didn't want to, and for not cooperating with her demands to know everything about his 'advance knowledge' dealie. _Is it my fault she wants the impossible, namely for me to 'fess up about the Iron Coin? I swear, Slay-gal, one of these days you're gonna have to realize that I can't tell you what's the what where the Jester's concerned, that you_ _**can't**_ _get your own way about that!_

Buffy sent Xander an innocent 'who, me?' look by way of reply to his annoyed look. "Well?"

"Well, sorry to have to point it out, Buff, but you're wrong." Xander said with another shrug. Before anyone else could cut in with more questions that he really didn't want to deal with, the phone rang. Feeling thankful, Xander got up to head for the bathroom as Mrs. Summers headed over to the telephone.

She picked up. "Hello, Summers residence."

Joyce nodded as she spoke, even though whoever was on the other end of the line was unable to see the head motion. "Xander? Yes, he's here."

Xander paused on his way to the bathroom, after hearing his name. He listened as Joyce said, "Could I ask why you want to talk to him?"

Another pause, and Joyce's expression went from normal, to a flash of shock, then gravely serious. She looked over towards Xander, her voice unusually soft. "All right. Xander, it's for you."

Xander nodded as he immediately went over to Joyce's side. "What's wrong?" Something in the middle-aged woman's expression, her tone...it had him worried. _I shoulda guessed something like this would happen, damn it, everything's been going too good in my life lately...not to mention that Fate wouldn't be happy how it didn't get what it wanted, where Willow and I were concerned..._

Mrs. Summers provided no answer, so Xander took the phone from her and held it up to ear. "Hello?"

"Hello. This is Detective Stein of the Sunnydale PD." _Oh yeah._ Xander quickly recalled the name. _The guy that totally had it out for Buffy, when she was accused of killing Kendra._ "Am I speaking to Alexander Harris?"

"Yeah...? Look, what's this about?" Xander decided to cut right to the chase.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, Mr. Harris." The policeman's voice said, then it paused a moment. "Your father's dead." Xander blanked out a moment. "Mr. Harris?"

Xander shook his head as if to clear it. "I'm sorry. I thought I just heard you say that my dad's dead. And, and that's just crazy talk!" With his back to the others, Xander didn't see the looks of shock and horror that spread across their faces as the gang got up and started to head over towards him.

"I'm sorry. But I'm afraid it's true; the body's already been formally identified. Your mother found him in the living room about half an hour ago, and called us. Mr. Harris - your dad, he appears to have suffered a deep stab wound from a barbeque fork to the neck, and then bled out."

"No, no, no way!" Xander denied almost violently. "This is some kind of sick joke. Next thing you know, you're going to tell me is that you think he was killed by gang members high on PCP!"

Rejection of every single word that he had heard come out of the detective's mouth was the only refuge Xander could find, in his current mental state. Sure, Tony Harris wasn't exactly Father of the Year material, and never had been. But...the man was his dad, for better or worse.

Tony was the guy who used to host barbeques for the Harris, Rosenberg and McNally families, before he'd been laid off from his job and started sliding down into alcoholism. He was the man who used to take his son and his brother Rory fishing when Xander was five, before Tony had discovered how it just wasn't any fun being the sole person who enjoyed the sport. The male teen just couldn't deal with the fact that...

His father...

Was dead...

And by _vampires_. It had, _**had**_ to be some kind of sick joke. The 'Scooby Gang' spent their nights risking their lives against demons and vampires, creatures of nightmares...their families were supposed to be safe. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen.

"Mr. Harris, please. I understand that this is very hard for you to accept, but I need you to grasp the fact that I'm telling you the truth. This is not a joke; although if it was, as you say, it would be a very sick one. At any rate, I'm afraid we need you to come over to your house as soon as possible, to answer a few questions."

Joyce reached over and gently took the phone from Xander's nerveless grasp before he could drop it. "Hello?" Pause. "I see. Yes, I'll have Xander there soon." Mrs. Summers told the detective, then pressed the end button on the cordless phone.

Xander felt the nausea rising within him, the acrid taste already on his tongue. The other backed away, sensing that he was about to hurl; Harris managed to force it back down for a moment, as he started rushing towards the bathroom. He didn't reach it, though, unfortunately. Doubling over, Xander's mouth opened and the contents of his stomach emptied out onto the carpeted floor. He hadn't actually eaten all that much tonight – he'd been saving room for dessert – so most of it was just dry heaving. Violent, painful, dry heaving, but dry heaving nonetheless.

Cordelia went over to her boyfriend hesitantly, unsure. Willow was about to follow her and go over to Xander as well, but after a look from Joyce, she decided not to. Cordy never even noticed; she was too busy trying to figure out what to do or say in this situation. _How...how am I supposed to act now...?_

Slowly, hesitantly, the young woman put a hand on her beloved's back. When Xander didn't flinch away, she kept it on him, slowly starting to rub around in circles until the dry-heaving stopped. Without a word, Cordelia then led Xander back to the couch, offering silent, unspoken comfort the best she could.

**Fifteen minutes later**

**17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale**

Mrs. Summers' Jeep came to a halt on the street near the Harris residence. Three police cars were already present in front of the house, and the yellow crime scene tape was over the front door. Grimacing, Joyce opened the car door and her passengers clambered out – Buffy, Xander and Cordelia. Oz's van pulled up behind them and he got out of it once it was parked, followed quickly by Willow and Faith.

The six teenagers and one adult approached the house. Xander was half-guided by Cordelia, the black-haired young man almost running on autopilot after the terrible shock to his system a short while ago. As they approached the house, two uniform policemen came out of the front door, temporarily removing it from the doorway. A few seconds later, two people from the coroner's office carried a quite obviously filled, but thankfully closed, body bag out of the house.

"Is that-" Buffy started to say, before she quickly closed her mouth. _**Of course**_ it was Xander's father.

Xander hadn't said anything since the phone call itself, but she'd overheard enough of the conversation, from Xander's end, to know what had killed his dad. A vampire. Buffy knew that Xander wouldn't have made that 'gang members high on PCP' comment if the detective on the other end hadn't said something – probably something about barbeque fork to the neck being the cause of death – that would have prompted it.

The very idea of Xander's father dying at the hands of a vampire...it sickened Buffy. Because she was _**the Slayer**_. Okay, _**a**_ Slayer nowadays, but still. Killing the vampires in Sunnydale was her job. She knew she couldn't get them all, Buffy knew that people died because she couldn't keep everyone around here safe. And that part always...well, to say it bothered her was an understatement, but Buffy could keep the feeling under control. If by nothing else than by the fact that she was doing all she could to keep things here in Hell-ville from falling apart completely.

She was out there every night killing the vampires...but she had missed one...missed one that had gone on to do something that was one of Buffy's worst nightmares.

She had missed a vampire that had gone after one of her friends, their family. Xander had never blamed her for Jesse's death, and part of her knew that Xander, being who he was, and understanding what they faced like he did, would most likely not blame her for this either. But Buffy couldn't help but blame herself.

_God damn it! I thought that snitch Willy had made it clear to the vamps and demons around here. I thought they understood that if they went after me or mine, it'd be all-out war! _Buffy fumed. She tried to distract herself from thinking that if she had patrolled a different route one night, or kept going a bit longer some other night...maybe she could have...could have killed the vampire that had done this...killed the vampire before it could do this...

"I want to see him." Xander suddenly said, stepping forward towards the cops.

"Mr. Harris-" One of the cops started to say, having seen a few pictures of the young man – granted, when he had been much younger – within the house, and thus recognizing him as the son of the victim.

"He's my father. I want to see the body before you load it into the coroner's van, and take it away to the city morgue!" Xander insisted.

The two orderlies looked at each other, and one of them shrugged after a moment. They put the body bag down and unzipped it enough for the upper half of the late Tony Harris to be seen.

Xander stepped forward and crouched down, looking at the white, bloodless corpse. The bite marks on the neck were clearly visible, so Xander had to find out. He had to know if...

Fortunately, his father's mouth was open. The light from the street lamp was, equally fortunately, bright enough for him to get a good look inside. Xander let loose a soft hiss of air; there was no blood in Tony's mouth, as far as he could tell, and for that much he was thankful.

At least...at least he didn't have to worry about _**that**_. About his father rising again tomorrow night...about needing to stake the vampire with Tony Harris's face.

The others knew exactly what he was doing, of course, but said nothing. Even the cops and the coroner's people said nothing, conveniently looking away. Cordelia noticed and thought to herself, _Well, if they don't know perfectly well what my boyfriend's doing, then I'll eat my bottom Prada!_ _Seriously, how can they know and not __**do**_ _anything about it? Even __**I**_ _couldn't live in denial forever!_

Xander straightened back up and walked back over to the others. Before he left, he nodded to the cops and the coroner's officials. "Thank you." Harris said softly, barely able to find his voice again. The cops just nodded as the other two zipped the bag back up and carried it off to the body van. The meat wagon.

"Did he-" Buffy started to say, but Xander immediately shook his head.

"No." Everyone was expecting him to say something else, but contrary to his normal habits, Xander was doing a pretty good Oz impersonation right now.

The blonde Slayer barely managed to contain a sigh of relief. Xander then took a deep breath, trying to prepare for something that he knew he couldn't really prepare for...

He slowly reached out for Cordelia's hand and took it, holding it tight. Much to his relief, Cordelia said nothing; she just squeezed his hand tightly. There was no sassy quip, or playful insult; just acceptance. Understanding. The unspoken promise of love and support.

The trip from the driveway of his house to the front door couldn't have taken longer than ten seconds, but to Xander it felt more like a century. A millennium, even. But finally, they got there, and started to duck under the crime scene tape to enter the house.

But then one of the policemen standing just inside the Harris residence held up a hand. "Sorry, but I can't let all of you in." He pointed to Cordelia and Mrs. Summers, given that one was an adult and the other was holding Xander's hand in a vise-like grip. "You two can come in with Mr. Harris. The rest of you, please stay outside."

"What?!" Willow protested, "But we're his friends!"

"Miss, this is a crime scene, not a nightclub like the Bronze." The cop said in annoyance. "For now, just you three." He pointed to Xander, Cordelia and Mrs. Summers again.

Xander let go of Cordelia's hand and hugged Willow tightly for a moment. Under other circumstances, Cordelia might have been just a tiny bit jealous, but...Xander and Willow had been best friends for years, ever since kindergarten, and given the circumstances...

The Chase girl understood that Xander needed that moment of comfort from his best friend. _I can live with that. This isn't a competition, and even if it was, I'd win anyway_.

"It's alright." Xander said softly to Willow. "Just knowing you're out here, Will, it's enough."

After a moment, Willow nodded, and Xander headed back towards the door. The policeman lifted the tape for the three of them, and they were in the living room within less than a minute. Mrs. Summers scowled when she saw Detective Stein. Understandably, she wasn't even remotely fond of the man, given the semi-vendetta he'd seemed to pursue against Buffy six months ago. Stein had stopped by the Summers house more than once, even when Buffy was gone, trying to see if there was something he could arrest her for; even though the murder charges had been dropped, after the Slayer's friends had made their statements.

"Mr. Harris."

"My name is Xander." Xander told the detective. "Mr. Harris is-" He paused a moment. "_**Was**_ my father."

"Mr.-" the Detective cut himself off, and then continued. "I'm going to need to ask you a few questions." Xander nodded, and the police detective started, pulling out a pen from inside his suit jacket. "What did your father do for a living?"

"He didn't _**do**_ anything." Xander frowned. _Shouldn't he already know that?_ _Wouldn't he have already asked Mom about it? _"Dad got laid off from his job a few months ago. Lately, all he did was get drunk, beat up my mother and watched whatever sports were on the television." Despite himself, Xander couldn't hide all the scorn out of his voice.

"You didn't like your father much, did you?"

"No...not particularly. Not for the last few years, at least, but he's..." Xander paused a moment. "He _**was**_ my father. You deal with it, even when it gets bad. It's family. And he was my dad."

"When were you last at your house, and what was your father doing then?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Cordelia asked in confusion.

"I'm trying to establish a definite timeline of events leading up to this incident, miss." Stein then turned back to Xander. "Can you please answer the question?"

"Uh, I left this morning to go to school. I haven't been back here until now, I went to straight to Buffy's house for dinner after school." Xander replied tersely. "As for what Dad was doing when I left this morning...he was sleeping it off in his recliner chair." He nodded to the chair in question. "What happened...how...?" Xander started slowly, voice trailing off, unable to find the words.

"It appears someone forced the back door open – we think with some kind of large hammer – and then attacked your father. Based on where his body fell, he was standing by the television when he was attacked." Stein wrote something down on his notepad. "Do you have idea of who might have done this?"

"No." Xander replied, entirely truthfully. He didn't know _who_. He did know _what_, however. And telling Stein wouldn't help. Either he already knew and was like the rest of the Sunnydale PD in his unwillingness to face or deal with Sunnydale's vampire problem, or else he didn't know and simply wouldn't believe him.

"Why do I get the feeling you wouldn't tell me if you did?" Stein asked slowly, looking at Xander sharply.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Xander demanded.

"Mr. Harris, your father was almost certainly killed by gang members high on PCP – the MO matches exactly for hundreds of other murders – and you're an associate of Buffy Summers, who is herself associated with those same gangs and a known killer-"

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Joyce exploded, looking enraged. "My daughter was exonerated of all those charges! Mister, you either you take that back, or I'll sue you in court!"

But Stein didn't even appear to notice the Summers woman's tirade, focusing solely on Xander. "You didn't like your father, and you don't seem to be grieving his loss all that much either. I wouldn't be surprised if you knew something about this incident, had something to _do_ with this even-"

Cordelia had had enough. She exploded at Detective Stein even while he was mid-sentence. "Mister, what's _**wrong**_ with you? My boyfriend's dad just died, and you're treating him like Public Enemy Number One? This is unbelievable! Are you that desperate for someone to blame, that you want to accuse someone with an airtight alibi?!"

Stein transferred his gaze to her, essentially glaring at her. Cordelia was totally unfazed, though. "Xander had nothing to do with this, and you know it. Plus I bet you just want to drag Buffy into this mess because of the way she made you look like a total idiot, about those bogus murder charges! And you never _**did**_ find out who killed Kendra, did you? It's disgusting the way the Sunnydale PD just just closed that case and moved on, because Xander and I were there that day those people attacked the library, and one of the 'gang members' broke his arm and another one chased me all the way out of the school!"

"Miss Chase-" Detective Stein started, but he didn't get the chance to say anything else.

"Hey, I'm not done yet!" Cordelia interrupted angrily. "For the record, you're a disgrace to your badge. Y'know, I ought to tell my father about all this; he knows the Chief of Police, and you could soon find yourself doing lone foot patrols at night! I probably oughta call my father's lawyer as well. His name's Holland Manners, at Wolfram and Hart; you musta heard of his law firm, right?"

Now _**that**_ got a reaction out of Stein. The plain-clothes detective scowled and straightened up, putting away his notebook. Looking at Xander, he spoke, voice stern. "Don't leave town." He then walked out of the living room, tearing down the crime-scene tape over the door as he went. The rest of the cops, uniform officers who had been doing their best to pretend they weren't there and that they weren't hearing any of this, quickly finished up their tasks and left as well.

Xander didn't say anything as he embraced Cordelia, holding her tight. He didn't need to say anything, she understood.

**An hour later**

**17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale**

Xander sat on his bed, turning the Iron Coin over again and again and again in his hand, staring at it. It had been hard to finally convince everyone to go. They had been worried about him and his mother, who was currently asleep after taking a boat-load of sleeping pills. Xander had assured himself that she was alright, and then asked everyone (even Cordelia) to go home.

He hadn't really wanted them to leave, but he hadn't been able to stand all of them staying here, all night...he needed...he needed time alone, with his thoughts. Cordelia had been the last to leave, she had been unwilling to leave him alone tonight. Neither had Buffy and Willow and everyone else, of course, but...

Cordelia...it was odd how she was the only thing he'd been able to latch onto, with all this. He still...he knew that his mind really wasn't grasping this quite yet. It would hit him, all at once, soon, he knew. His father was dead. Xander knew that in his brain, but he didn't feel it in his heart at the moment.

No. What he was feeling there was rage. Rage and confusion.

Confusion because the back door had been forced open. But if a vampire needed an invitation to get in, then why would it break and enter the premises? That made no sense at all. For that matter, his surly and decidedly antisocial father didn't extend invitations to _**anyone**_, he had lived in Sunnydale all his life and knew the unspoken rules as well as every long-term human resident. Not that that necessarily meant he hadn't invited a vampire in...but still, the forced door...and the fact that his mother was still alive, plus Jessica Harris hadn't seen or heard _**anything**_ while she'd been upstairs, cleaning his room for once...

It just didn't add up. And it was too well tied to his ongoing fear of Fate dropping the other shoe.

Xander couldn't get over the suspicion...the firm belief...that all this was due to Fate. Why would some vampire go after his father, otherwise? There were certainly easier pickings in Sunnydale, in terms of finding a quick meal. Besides, trying to get at Buffy through him by killing his father was suicidal, and every member of the undead club within the city limits had to know that. Buffy (and Faith as well, most likely) would now go on a rampage, looking for the guilty party, and there would soon be a _**lot**_ of collateral damage within the demon community.

These days the vampires in Sunnydale tended to avoid making waves as much as possible, given their evil and predatory natures. _Not that that isn't likely to change once a new Big Bad moves into town, _Xander considered.

Still, as has been said, all this just didn't make sense. And there was only one way Xander knew for sure on how to get an answer to his questions regarding the _why_, rather than the _who_. Ask the Jester.

"Asking the Jester about all this won't get you anywhere, I'm afraid." A stern voice said from behind the young man, as if in reply to his thought.

Xander turned to face the source of the voice. He couldn't make any details out of the appearance of the speaker, though the voice at least _sounded _male; the room was in complete darkness, he had deliberately switched the lights off. Harris said. "So who are you? This Hydra character that seems to be the one messing with my ability to tell people anything?"

The voice laughed. "I am no agent of Chaos, to upset the proper order things out of some misplaced desire for 'amusement', or pure contrariness." There was a sound of fingers snapping, and the lights in Xander's room went on.

The originator of the voice was an old man. Well, his gray beard was long enough that it had to be on a really, really old guy, but his face didn't have enough wrinkles. The black robes completed the look of some fantasy wizard. _Not exactly someone straight out of 'Lord of the Rings', but he's pretty damn close._

Xander honestly couldn't help himself. He asked. "Who are you supposed to be, Gandalf the Black?"

"I am the Librarian of Fate." If the Librarian got the joke, he didn't show it.

What, do great cosmic powers not read good books anymore?

Okay, so Xander hadn't read them either. He had seen those cheesy animated movie versions back when he was younger, though, after Willow had kept babbling about how great the books had been. "Fine, so?"

"Your father's death was no random occurrence, as you have already guessed. It was an object lesson in the power of Fate, and why you should cease and desist from using the Iron Coin the Jester gave you – you must stop interfering with the order of things. You have already done far too much damage. You are insignificant in the grand scheme of things, granted, but beings such as yourself have no place becoming even an annoyance to the Forces of Fate." Despite the harsh nature of the words, there was no vitriol in this...being's tone. It was as if the Librarian was giving Xander a lecture, like a school teacher telling him things that the dark-haired youth should already know.

Too bad for him how the Librarian's audience was in no mood to learn that which the higher being was trying to teach.

"You killed my father, _**just to teach me lesson**_?" Xander grabbed the lamp off his bedside table and threw it at the Librarian before he even knew what he was doing. The Librarian flickered a moment and the object passed right through the robed being, continuing on through Xander's open window, crashing onto the yard below.

"There is no point in wasting your time that way. I am able to be in as many places as needed to prevent my time from actually being wasted on this little venture, but your time is being spent to no avail. Which brings us to the second thing I am here to tell you. Namely, that you will hand over the Iron Coin, now, and then I will be on my way."

"You arranged for my dad to die, just in order to get me to give you that thing?" Xander asked, too amazed to even be angry. The thought then came unbidden into his mind. _Because you can't simply take it yourself?_

"Yes." The Librarian replied coolly. "Do you understand now? Your interference in the proper order of things has gone far enough. At least when you altered the destinies of the Slayer and her friends before the Jester gave you his coin, you didn't know any better. But now you are deliberately interfering in what must be, and what must come to pass. If you continue to interfere with our plans, more people will die. And their deaths will be on your head."

"You sick - what the-" Xander spluttered, unable to find the right words. His rage, confusion and terror mixing with an undercurrent of guilt to create an impossible-to-control cocktail of emotions. "What are we, just game pieces to you? Pawns on a chess board? Where do you get off consigning Buffy to death not once, not twice, but _**three**_ times? Who gave you permission to start killing people, to make things go according to the way you _want_ them to? Where you get off killing _my father_ to teach me a lesson, then threatening that more people will die, and then have the nerve to blame _me_ for it?! Who the hell gave you the right to play those sorts of games?"

"This is not a game, Alexander LaVelle Harris. This is Destiny, Fate, the planned order of things; call it what you will. And as for your other questions, the Universe must run its proper way. The forces of Fate do not play games, and we do not enact whims. To use a phrase you can understand, we...keep things going. We make sure that even though individuals may suffer and die, this world will continue to exist both now, and far into the future. Your perspective is limited. Were you able to see even a fraction of what I see, you would understand why the Slayer had to die in that underground cavern at the hands of The Master."

"I don't care how much perspective I'd have! I would never sacrifice Buffy's life like that. I wouldn't sacrifice _**anyone's**_life, as if they were just a cheap disposable pawn!" Xander ranted at the higher being.

"Do not give Buffy Anne Summers that much credit. Calling her a pawn gives her far too much importance. You – all of you here on this Hellmouth – are of a level of insignificance that it is impossible for your minds to truly understand. You have no idea just how irrelevant you truly are."

"Oh, really? Well, if I'm so insignificant, why are you even bothering to visit me here in the first place?" Xander demanded, refusing to buy what this guy was selling. "'Cause it's not just about the Iron Coin, is it? Seriously. I bet that if you could have, you'd have just arranged for someone to have taken it away from me by now. Uh-uh, Mr. Librarian, not buying any of that. Besides, if we were so completely unimportant, why would you even bother with us at all? Why would you arrange for what happened to my dad, if _**I'm**_ so unimportant?"

"You still do not understand. It is not as if it actually takes much of my focus or energy to be here, or to arrange for what happened to your father, or to keep things going the way they should be, here on this Hellmouth. You cannot understand the level of awareness that I possess. You _**should**_understand that there are thousands of deaths which occur every second, that I am the ultimate cause of. And it does not happen out of spite, or benevolence, or favoritism; it is simply the natural order of things. Fate. Destiny. But your interference is making waves. Things must go the way we have planned for them. And you must stop your interference-"

"Screw you, pal; I've heard enough of your _**crap**_!" Xander interrupted fiercely. "You think, you really _**think**_that you can stop me by killing my dad? By threatening to kill other people? Free will, pal; if you don't know what it means, look it up! As far as I'm concerned, any deaths that you cause are _**your **_fault, not mine. I'm _**not**_ going to abandon my friends to whatever horrible plans you've cooked up for them! And just so you know, asshole, you've now made this fucking personal. Before, even with what you tried to make happen between me and Willow; it was about my friends-"

"You should not have altered that event." the Librarian interrupted tonelessly. "You have no idea what the consequences will be, less than a year from now."

"Whatever! But as I was saying, after what you did...now, it's about _**me**__._ Maybe I'm small. Maybe all I'll ever be to you is a tiny little annoyance. But I'll be the biggest fucking tiny little annoyance you've ever seen!" Xander threw the Iron Coin at the Librarian as he shouted that last part, figuring to use it as a weapon. Maybe it wouldn't work, or maybe it would; but Harris figured it was worth a shot. It was all about intent; he wasn't _**giving**_ the coin to his enemy, in any sense of the word.

Xander guessed correctly; the moment that the Chaos Artifact touched the Force of Fate, the higher being vanished in a flash of light, an agonized look appearing on the Librarian's face for just an instant. Afterwards, the coin clattered against the wall and then fell to the floor of Xander's bedroom, unharmed.

"You want a war, you prick? YOU'VE GOT ONE!" Xander hissed angrily, as somewhere in a higher dimension, the Forces of Chaos started 'laughing' wildly.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: **As per usual, Buffy is owned by Joss/ME/Kuzui/etc. Not me. Sheesh, if I owned it, would I be writing what is essentially a fix-it fic?

Thanks to Staway Man, my Beta

The Iron Coin Chronicles: Season One

By Alkeni

Episode 8: Lovers Walk Redux

**November 22****nd****, 1998**

**Willy's Alibi Room**

"I'm telling you, Slayer! I have no idea who or what killed your friend's dad. Swear on my mother's grave! Should anything happen to her, God forbid..." Willy insisted, looking terrified. And he was terrified. Terrified of the short blonde woman who had lifted him a clear foot off the ground.

"You're lying!" Buffy said furiously. "C'mon, Willy - someone _**has**_ to have talked about it! If only for the bragging rights to get at me, through my friend's family!"

"Listen, kid, be reasonable! I mean, why the hell would I lie to you and Angel here, when the two of you are obviously ready, willing 'n able to beat the shit out of me? I spread the word about your friends, just like ya forced me to way back when. And you know as well as I do the kinds of demons and vamps that come through my door aren't hardcore or suicidal enough to go after your family, your friends, or their families. HEY! What the hell-?!" Willy picked himself off of the floor, slowly, rubbing his leg and wincing in pain after Buffy dropped him to the floor.

The Chosen One had a lethal expression upon her face. "Willy, let's get something straight. I'm _**done**_ fooling around with you; either you tell me who did it, or so help me I'll-"

"Buffy." Angel interrupted, stepping forward towards her as the Slayer turned to face him. "He's telling the truth, I can tell. Willy honestly doesn't know who killed Xander's dad." Before Buffy could say anything in protest, he continued, speaking to the snitch. "But you have your suspicions, I'm sure. So, let's hear it. Who's been talking about Buffy more than usual? Complaining more than usual? Talking a bigger game than they usually do?"

Willy looked at his broken front door, then back at Angel and Buffy. He sighed and replied, "Yeah, well, I'm kinda surprised you haven't heard it already. Old buddy of yours was in here last night, truth be told." He paused a moment, and then sighed again. "Spike."

"SPIKE?! That son of a - he's actually back in town!?" Buffy immediately felt a stab of guilt in her stomach, because she had let Spike live back in May. Had made that Devil's bargain with him to stop Angelus and save the world...and now...

Now he's made Xander pay for my mistake...

Buffy shook her head after jumping to conclusions, she knew she had to focus. "I told that bastard the deal, God damn it! He and Drusilla left Sunnydale for good, and they got to live. So why'd they come back? And why _**now**_?"

Willy shook his head, feeling unnerved by the female teenager's glare. "Uh, no. The loon wasn't with him, actually. They split up in South America few months back, from what he was saying last night. Actually, Spike spent the whole night pissing and moaning 'bout how she left him for a Chaos demon. Oh, and how it was all your fault, Slayer..."

"Where's Spike's new lair?" Buffy demanded, not liking the implications of that.

"No clue." Willy immediately backed away from Buffy's raised fist, bumping into the bar after just a few steps. "Seriously! C'mon, Slayer, the guy didn't get _**that**_ drunk. And hell, he might not have even have set up a new base yet. Look, kid, I know you're upset - but listen, we both know how this works, right? I don't know where Spike is holed up, but I can find out. But you gotta do something for me, okay?"

"You're not exactly in any position to make demands here, Willy." Buffy spat.

Willy gulped, but then he straightened up. "You're not going to kill me, kid, and neither is your boyfriend. Or else, you'd have done it already. And whatever else you may think of me, I've got a business to run, and Spike racked up a bar tab a mile long. So..."

Angel didn't let him finish, already knowing what the weasel-y snitch was hinting at. "Fine. I'll make sure that whatever money or valuables we find at Spike's place go to you, once you give us his new address." Angel said firmly.

"What? Angel!" Buffy turned and stared at him. "What are you-?!"

"Buffy, do you want to find Spike as quickly as possible or not?" Angel asked her. He answered his own rhetorical question. "And since we both know the answer's yes, this is the easiest and fastest way to do it. You _**know**_ that. Besides, Willy's right, neither of us are going to kill him; at least not tonight, and not like this."

Frustrated and angry, both because she knew Angel was right and because of this whole damned situation, Buffy let out an angry growl that turned into a scream as she drove her fist into the bar. She poured her anger, her sense of helplessness, her guilt... _This is all my fault, damn it..._into the punch. The blonde girl pulled her fist back and prepared to hit the bar again, but Angel grabbed her arm. "Buffy. That's not gonna help, and we need to go. Besides, I'm sure Willy got the picture the first time."

Clenching her fists, fuming and knowing her beloved was right yet again, Buffy let Angel walk her out of the bar. Behind them, the bartender-slash-snitch let out a sigh of relief as he slumped back to lean against his bar.

_Un-freaking-believable_, Willy then thought to himself, assessing the hole made by Buffy's fist.

**November 23****rd****, 1998**

**17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale**

Xander stood up, eyes still staring out the window, like they had for the last nine hours since his 'interview' with the so-called Librarian of Fate. He hadn't even bothered to try to sleep, as Harris had known it was never going to happen. Not tonight. Not under these circumstances.

During the night, he had thought about the situation. There was no doubt that he was totally out of his league here. Plus, this was something that no one could help him with. Sure, _**he**_ knew what was going on, how and why his father had been killed in order to teach him a lesson...but the Watcher and the Slayers and the rest of his friends didn't know squat. Because he, Xander, couldn't tell them a damn thing. He was all alone, and unable to tell anyone what he knew. Not even Cordelia.

Which totally sucked.

Nonetheless, over the past nine hours Xander had come up with a project in his mind. A project that was probably impossible to complete, granted. The Jester, and the Librarian...they both had made clear just how small he was, compared to them, and compared to what they dealt with on an everyday basis. Those guys were on a level which he could clearly not understand or play at. So how the hell was he supposed to become even a nuisance to the forces of Fate, become something that would actually _**bother**_ them? If they were so much bigger, and larger than life, so to speak...how could he become any kind of serious player in this game? Xander honestly didn't know.

_Still, I have to. Somehow, I have to. I have to keep screwing with them, with their plans, using the Iron Coin. Both of them; neither the Jester nor the Librarian are on __**my**__ side, after all. And hate to admit it, but I guess that for now, that's all I __**can**_ _do. I have to protect my friends from whatever it is that they're up to. I don't care why they do it. Who knows...maybe there's some kind of greater good that's supposed to come out of all this, on some cosmic level that I can't possibly understand. But I don't __**care**_ _if there is, on account of I can't see things at that level. All I can see, all I know, is that my friends are at risk, and that bad things are going to happen. Bad Things that I am not going to like. Bad Things that I can stop. Bad Things that I __**need**_ _to stop._

Xander took a deep breath. "Damnit, I may not be able to hurt them. But I can use the coin." He looked at the object in his hand. All night, he'd turned it over in his hand, over and over and over and over and over again. He could probably repeat the motion in his sleep by this point.

Harris looked at the coin, then took a second deep breath. Despite all the months which had passed since last summer, he had never gotten used to the feeling of the visions the coin gave him. Closing his eyes, he flipped the coin. "Buffy Summers."

The vision appeared at once in his Harris-shaped head.

_Dead children...a merry-go-round, in a park at night..._

_The library on fire...parents screaming...no, yelling..._

_Buffy...Willow – and Amy? They were tied to...they were being __**burned at the stake**__?_

Xander shook his head slightly, as the images continued to inundate his mind.

_Two old guys with British accents, they were talking somewhere..._

An abandoned house, and two other guys were bricking up the windows...

"_The Cruciamentum is one of our most important traditions, Rupert."_

_The library. A needle, someone was injecting something into Buffy's arm..._

_A crazed, psychotic-looking vampire giving her too much trouble..._

Xander's head snapped forward as he came back to the here and now, the vision still lingering just behind his eyes. He didn't need to write it down, but what he did need to do was talk to Giles. Find out what the hell 'Cruciamentum' really meant.

Thanks to his Latin lessons over the past few months, Harris knew that the word was way too close to the verb that meant 'to torture' – among other things – for his comfort. And that -nt- meant that it was probably a Present Active Participle. And he was still kind of fuzzy on those.

And whoever was talking about it in that vision – one of those two old guys, he supposed – was talking about it to Giles.

But he couldn't go to Giles. Not yet. Right now, he had more flips to do. More people to flip for. Still, right at the top of his mental to-do list were two words.

_Cruciamentum. Giles._

Taking another deep breath, Xander flipped the coin once more. "Cordelia Chase."

Xander immediately fell to the ground, his free hand on his stomach, groaning and pressing down, as if trying to stop bleeding. He had _**seen and felt **_it that time, had felt the iron spike piercing Cordelia's gut as if it was his own, he had felt her agony.

Cursing and trying to ignore the way-too-slowly-fading pain by sheer force of will, Xander staggered to his feet and flipped the Iron Coin again.

"Willow Rosenberg."

**November 23****rd****, 1998**

**Sunnydale High School Library**

Monday morning class could wait. Screw it, he had other priorities.

"Giles, office, now." Xander said without preface, walking around the main desk and into the librarian's private office without so much as a by-your-leave. Giles sputtered in surprise for a moment before he walked into the office after Xander, taking off and cleaning his glasses – the fifth time that morning – as he went.

Rupert never had a chance to say anything, though, as Xander commanded him, "And close the goddamn door behind you."

Surprised at the boy's tone, the Watcher nonetheless did as he was bid before he turned around and said. "Xander, w-what on earth is going on? Well, I mean, obviously you're...err, after what happened to your father..."

"Unless you want Buffy and Willow and Cordy and Oz barging in and wondering what the hell a 'Cruciamentum' is, then you should also lock the door so we can talk in peace. Don't think I don't know Buffy doesn't trust me the way she used to, and that she wouldn't demand answers neither of us can give her. Especially about something that roughly translates to 'torment' or 'torture' in English."

Even more flustered and shocked, Giles perched his glasses back on his nose and closed the door. "Xander, uh, h-how did you hear about the Tento di Cruciamentum?"

"Tento...? No, never mind. And to answer your question, the same way that I've heard and learned _**everything else**_ that I shouldn't be knowing, Giles!" Xander said, almost pulling his hair in frustration. "You know, I think we need to set up some ground rules here, because I'm starting to go insane with all this. God damn it, I didn't _**ask**_ for any of this, Giles! But since I've got it, I'm using it, and if I'm going to use what I know to the best effect, these little Q and A sessions need some ground rules from now on. And rule number one? I need you to _**stop**_ asking me how I know things that it makes no sense for me to , you already _**know**_ it's because of this thing that I've got! You know, the one I can't tell you details about?"

Giles looked even more flustered. "Well, yes, Xander, but still-"

"And rule number two, when I ask you a question about things that I have no business knowing about in the first place, you just answer straight up. Especially given the circumstances, I don't care if you get all stuffy and British about it. My father got killed last night, and I'm not in the mood for stalling or evasiveness anymore. I swear I'll find out some other way if you don't cough up, so for the last time: What. Is. The. Cruciamentum?"

"Ah. Well. It's a, uh, test." Giles said slowly, looking away and down.

Xander didn't get it. "A test? That can't be what's got you looking so rattled. Good Godfrey Cambridge, you've got the entire library here and then some inside your head! Whatever it is-"

"It's not for me, boy, it's for Buffy. And before you ask, it's...it's not a test of knowledge. Nothing something you can study for and, and be assessed with a pen or pencil. The Cruciamentum is...it's a test of wits, of strength, of resourcefulness for the Slayer, when she reaches her 18th birthday. And it's...the sort of test whether you either pass, o-o-or you die, in, in combat against a vampire." Giles confessed.

"What the hell!? You want to put _Buffy_ into a 'fight to the death' scenario with some bloodsucker, as part of some _**stupid-ass test**_?" Xander looked like he honestly couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"_**I**_ don't want to do that, for God's sake! But it's what Quentin Travers, the deputy Head of the Council, will demand that I do later in January." Giles threw his arms up in disgust. "It's pointless, a-a-and an antiquated barbaric tradition, but it's nonetheless been Council practice for a dozen centuries. And, it can't be stopped, even if I were to refuse to go through with my part in the whole sorry affair. One way or another, it will happen..."

"Oh, Lord. Okay, then let's start from the top." Xander took a deep breath, trying to force the frantic intensity of out of his voice, from more than just this 'Cruciamentum' thing. An entire morning of flipping the Iron Coin, of seeing the visions...visions that had forever been burned into his mind, even if he lived to be a hundred. Another breath. Xander said as calmly as possible, "What happens during this test?"

Giles looked out the small window and spoke softly, not meeting Xander's gaze. "According to the protocols I've studied, the Slayer's Watcher must use a special spell to put the girl's mind to sleep...hypnosis, uh, all of the Chosen seem especially vulnerable to it. Once, ah, properly distracted, he injects her with a special semi-magical chemical cocktail of sorts. It temporarily suppresses all of her Slayer enhancements, leaving her no more than an ordinary human being in terms of strength, reaction, senses, even knowing a vampire from a non-vampire. Then the Chosen One is, err, locked up in an empty house and she must kill a vampire present therein, um, before sunrise. Alone, and only what materials or makeshift weapons she can find."

Xander honestly couldn't find the words to reply for a moment. Eventually he spluttered. "How...what kind of sick-"

"Keep in mind that ever since...well, before human civilization began, the Council had only one girl with superhuman powers to fight against all the demons, vampires and forces of darkness throughout the entire world. Waging such a war with such limited weaponry means, uh, means taking a, um, a very cold-hearted approach to the Slayer. And not without good reason. For a field Watcher like myself, it's impossible to stay that cold when you personally know the girl, when it's your job to teach her and train her and you see that she is more than just a disposable weapon, one who-who has no purpose but to protect humanity. The Cruciamentum was simply an outgrowth of that inevitable viewpoint..."

"You sure? Because it sounds to _**me**_ like the Cruciamentum's a real convenient method for you guys to weed out the stupid or incompetent Slayers, given the whole 'limited weaponry' thing you just mentioned. Not to mention that if the Slay-gal lives long enough to start thinking for herself, well, hey! Much easier to simply wipe the slate clean and start off with a new one, rather than have to put up with the old one's complaints and arguments! Am I wrong, or what?" Xander asked cuttingly.

Giles briefly looked startled, and then resigned again. "Perhaps. But as I said, one way or the other, it will happen. If I refuse to play my part, then I'll be fired and someone else will do it. Or, if that proves impossible once she's forewarned, then the Council may elect to just kill her using one its wet works teams. Even Buffy can't survive a sniper's bullet to the heart from five hundred yards away, without even seeing her assassin."

Xander's eyes were now very, very wide. "You're serious?"

"Deadly." Giles said, looking away again.

"The hell with that, then! We've still got two months, so you need to warn Buffy what's the what. Not to mention make sure that she can handle the test easy-peasy. Take it from someone who knows the first rule of passing tests: you always cheat if you wanna pass. And we can cheat here, no problem."

"Xander, the Council-"

"Can go kiss my lily-white ass! Just off the top of my head, I figure I'll send Angel in to hide in that damned house before you and the other guys from the Land of Tweed shove Buffy in there and lock the door behind you. Hell, it's not as if either of us could stop him, once he hears about this conversation. What do they call that, plausible deniability?" Xander demanded.

Giles smirked for less than a moment. "I-I-I suppose it's possible. But as you say, Buffy's 18th birthday is still some time off. Right now, we have a more immediate concern, namely who killed your father."

"There's no way you could know who did that already...wait up, who do you think it is?" Xander demanded, getting the impression Giles knew something he didn't.

"Well, uh, Buffy and Angel seem to think it's Spike..."

Xander's reaction was...unexpected. He laughed, a short, harsh bark. "One, I'm pretty damn sure Spike isn't the vamp who killed my dad. And two, why would they even think it was him? He's gotta be somewhere on the other side of the world by now, or whatever!"

"Uh, no. Angel and Buffy went to Willy's last night, you see, to-to try and find out who killed your father. The man claimed not to know anything about that, but Willy did mention that Spike was, um, back in Sunnydale, blaming Buffy for Drusilla breaking up with him. In my view, it makes some degree of sense. Besides, what makes you so sure it wasn't him?"

"Well, think about it, Giles. That vampire had to be invited in, and the hell with that thing of someone forcing their way inside. That was..." Xander briefly choked, unable to speak in order not to violate the Hydra's rules. "And my dad, he wouldn't have had _**any**_ reason to invite Spike into the house. Now, a teenage female vampire dressed in real skimpy clothes? Far more likely. But unless Spike was pretending to be a rum salesman with fee samples or something, Dad would have told him to get lost straightaway. And I'm not saying that that salesman scenario's impossible, but it just doesn't seem like something Spike would do; at least, not after what happened with Parent-Teacher Night last year."

Giles had to nod at that. "I suppose so, yes. So what exactly are you saying? Are you proposing Buffy and Angel _don't_ track Spike down and slay him?"

"No, I'm not saying that. That undead asshole should be dusted ASAP, God only knows how many bodies he's left behind him since the 19th century! But still - Spike's not the vampire who killed my father." Xander looked away for a moment, thinking, wondering. Should he tell Giles about seeing Buffy, Willow and Amy being burned at the stake...?

_No. He'll tell Buffy, he has to. After all, these days Giles doesn't fully trust me anymore, not one hundred percent, just like the Buffster. And once she hears about that, who knows what it'll lead to! I don't have any context for why they're being burned alive like that. But there __**has**__ to be a reason. Fate has to really, really want them all dead..._

"Alright. That's settled, then. And, um, I'll consider what you said about the Cruciamentum," Giles said, unaware of Xander's mental musings and assuming the younger man knew something he didn't, regarding William the Bloody's culpability in that other matter. Shrugging, Giles turned to his desk and picked up a piece of paper. "Now, Xander, about this latest translation of yours...what on earth possessed you to translate _Dixit nautam poetam Servavisse_ the way you did? Honestly, don't you recognize and indirect statement by now?"

Xander groaned. _Here we go..._

**November 24****th****, 1998**

**Chase Residence, Sunnydale**

'Xander, are you _**sure**_ you haven't, like, totally lost it after your dad was killed?' That was the question which Cordelia wanted to ask Xander the most, and the one question which she knew she shouldn't ask him. He wouldn't take it well. These days, she knew her boyfriend well enough to be sure of that.

Instead she just squeezed his hand for a moment as they sat there in silence on her couch, for now...she was content for them to just be together.

Damn it. The dweeb was holding up so well...on the outside...but then, he always did. Nonetheless a woman knows her man, and so Cordelia could tell, after Xander had shown up at school the next morning, after his father's death...and this morning...

He was having nightmares about what had taken place the other night. She could see the tell-tale signs, small things. Usually she only noticed them when her boyfriend was trying too hard to hide them. And usually around apocalypse season. But now, after the death of his father...

Cordelia Chase swore viciously to herself. _We __**so**_ _have got to get out of this damn town, one way or another, before it kills us too. Or drives us insane, or whatever._

Granted, there was a new...drive in Xander now. Like he was throwing himself into the helping with the Slaying. Buffy wouldn't let him go on patrol with her last night, saying he was 'too emotional' about it...plus she didn't agree with Xander's conclusions about Spike not being Tony Harris's killer.

Personally Cordelia had to agree with Xander's logic, even though Spike being the bad guy made a lot of sense...because like Willow, and unlike Buffy,she had _**actually met **_Xander's parents. Both in the old days, and more recently after she had finally taken their relationship out of the closet. _The dork's right, his dad woulda simply told Spike to go screw himself and slam the door in his face; and his mom never even knew anyone had entered the house. And yet someone __**broke in**__? Kinda weird, now that I think about it..._

Nonetheless...this drive...Cordelia wondered if Xander would be willing to leave Sunnydale with her now, rather than stay and help in the fight, in order get revenge...for everything. Still, if it wasn't Spike...maybe they'd never find out 'whodunit'. Who had actually killed his father. _God forgive me, but I can't help thinking that that might actually be the best thing that could happen, so that my doofus doesn't get himself killed trying to do the whole 'avenging son' thing. Oh, Lord, I just want the next six months to be over and done with already, so that I can drag both him and me away from this hellhole!_

"I won't ask how you're doing, because y'know, totally stupid question. But do you think you'll be okay?" Cordelia finally asked her beloved, leaning into him a little.

Xander reached up and stroked Cordelia's hair gently for a moment, tucking an errant strand behind her ear. "I don't know." He admitted. "The nightmares...they've gotten worse, these last two nights. I just have...I just have a bad feeling...like..." His voice trailed off, before it firmed up.

"Yeah, Cor, I'll be okay. Eventually. I'm alive...and I've got you...and my friends. I'll make it though this, one way or the other. My mom, I'm not so sure about, but that's something we can discuss another time." Then he looked at the Chase girl for a moment, just looked at her. His girlfriend. The woman he...yes, he could admit it now, the woman he loved. Had fallen in love with.

Xander bit his lip a moment. "Cordy...there's something I..." His voice trailed off a moment. "The death of someone close to you...kinda makes you think about life...death...the people you care about." Harris interrupted her attempt to interrupt with a finger pressed gently to her lips. "Cordelia...about us...before...before I found out...about Dad. I, I figured something out...about how I feel about you...and...my dad's death...it made me think...about how either of us could die...die before I told you..." He paused for one more moment.

"Xander," Cordelia said nervously. "You're...uh, you're starting to worry me-" Xander cut her off with a soft kiss.

"Cordelia Chase, I love you."

Cordelia's eyebrows nearly lifted up to the top of her head upon hearing that, but as he kissed her again, she just grabbed Xander tightly and climbed on top of her boyfriend, pushing him down onto the couch and fastening her lips to his like glue. Those three words were something she had been waiting to hear for nearly a year; and so as far as she was concerned, it was time to give herself to Xander Harris completely.

Mind, soul, and most _**especially**_ body.

Not far away, Cordelia's cell phone started to buzz and vibrate.

They both ignored it.

**November 24****th****, 1998**

**Sunnydale High Library**

Buffy slammed down the phone. "She's not answering. Damn it, we don't have time for this. We have to find Spike!"

Oz looked up from the ground, which he'd been examining rather intently since the call had come through from Spike a few minutes ago. He was worried and trying to catch Willow's scent, even if he wasn't succeeding well. Buffy, likewise worried, replayed the recent conversation in her head for the tenth time...

"I've got yer little red-headed friend, Slayer. Come 'n find me, and maybe you'll get her back alive. I won't promise untouched. She does look right tasty, doesn't she?"

"I'll come for her, Spike, don't worry. And this time, I'll dust you - just like I should have last year! You just tell me where Willow is!" Buffy had screamed into the phone, terrified for her best friend.

Spike had laughed darkly. "Cor blimey, now that'd spoil all the fun, Slayer! Tell ya what, you come find me. And you have two hours, Little Miss Tiny, or Red here ends up my next meal. Maybe even me new bird, if I'm feelin' generous..."

"I can follow her scent. I think." Oz suddenly spoke up, staring at Buffy. Angel and Faith had already left to try to track Willow themselves, each in their own way. "The full moon is in ten days...that's...barely enough, to let me follow the scent. Now where's the last place we know she was-"

Oz quickly answered his own question, recalling what his girlfriend had said about trying to use magic to find out who had killed Xander's dad. "Uncle Bob's Magic Cabinet."

**November 24****th****, 1998**

**Abandoned Factory, Sunnydale**

"Slayer!" Spike said arrogantly from the top of the stairs, hands in the pockets of his coat. He looked somewhat hung over from his drinking binge the other night, but nowhere near as bad as what he would have looked like in another world - one where he had both Xander _**and **_Willow as his hostages. "So ya finally showed up. Gaah, I was startin' to wonder if you ever would! Thinking Red and I would actually get to have a little...fun time, together."

"You son of a bitch-" Oz swore, stepping forward, only to have Buffy put an arm out in front of him. "If you hurt Willow that way, I'll-"

"Oz." Buffy said, cutting him off. "I've got this." Then she looked back at Spike, twirling a stake in her hand. "What can I say, Spike, I aim to please. Not you, of course; me."

"Ya know, it would have been a lot more pleasing if you'd come alone, Slayer." Spike said, looking around and suddenly catching a familiar scent. "Or at least if ya didn't bring Captain Forehead over there. What happened to a fair fight?"

"When were _**you**_ ever in favor of a fair fight?" Angel asked in amazement, stepping forward a bit.

"What can I say, mate?" Spike spread his arms wide mockingly. "I like winning."

"Then let's get this over with, Spike." Buffy said, gesturing as the brunette Slayer showed her face as well. "I'd like to introduce ya to Faith, she's Kendra's replacement. And do you remember the little tussle you, me and Kendra had in that church, last year? Well, this time, you're _**not**_walking away after fighting two Slayers..."

"Yeah? Well, sod that, luv - voila!" Spike stepped back and three vampires came out of a doorway on the bottom level. New recruits from Willy's bar. "Let the fun begin, then!"

Angel took two stakes out of his pocket and tossed one to Oz, then charged at the vampires, the teenage werewolf following close behind. Faith was already battling her own opponent.

"You deal with Spike!" Angel shouted to Buffy, as he fell onto one of Spike's minions, knocking the other away with a kick to the chest and grappling to get his stake into his opponent's chest. Oz ducked under the remaining vampire's punch, then took a hard fist to the side, but pulled himself to his feet before his opponent could get much advantage out of it. _That's going to hurt in the morning_.

Buffy didn't even bother to use the stairs. She literally ran at them, grabbing the rail and using it to vault herself up to the upper landing with a jump, landing with a roll from the shoulder, stake in her hand when she rose to her feet. She had less than a second, though, before Spike was upon her.

"Nice plan, Spike. But gee, did you actually think you could pull it off? Did you _**really**_think I'd be stupid enough to come here alone?" Buffy taunted as she ducked under his punch and kicked him in the leg; but Spike turned, taking it on the side of his leg, rather than the shin or knee, and then he grabbed her arm, twisting it towards him.

"Gotta say, Betty, that if you think this is my entire plan? Then you know bugger all about me..."

Without another word Spike released Buffy's arm and stomped, hard, on a section of the landing's wood plank floor. It gave way under his foot immediately, the floor cracking around the hole, and Spike then grabbed the railing, jumping away from it, as the entire landing started to cave in. "Ta-da!"

Panicking, Buffy grabbed the door handle leading into the nearby room, holding on for dear life as she saw the spikes Spike had set up below the landing, clearly waiting for her. Naturally, she recalled the stories of how Spike had gotten his nickname back in the 1880's - killing people with railroad spikes through their brains...

"Not bad, but you must have eaten your Crazy Flakes this morning if you thought that would work!" Buffy shouted as she pulled at the door handle, letting the door swing free with her hanging on. And then she she used the momentum to swing herself back towards Spike. "Ta-da!"

Spike's eyes went wide with disbelief as Buffy's legs connected with his chest, sending them both over the edge, away from the deadly spikes. Buffy maneuvered Spike to serve as cushion for her landing, but the peroxide-blonde vampire twisted and managed to get them to land on their sides, the wind knocked out of both of them. "Ow. Oh, bloody toffing hell..." William cursed.

Sensing movement Spike rolled over, as Angel came at him, stake in hand. Buffy clambered to her feet, holding her side and fighting back the urge to wince in pain, but before either of them could deliver the killing blow...Spike was on his feet and running for the door. He reached it, both vampire and Slayer running after him.

"Another time, you lot!" William the Bloody said with a smirk, and then he was out the door.

Making sure that Faith and Oz were okay and helping dispatch the remaining two vamps, Buffy and Angel then tried to catch up to Spike. But, he was already on the street heading for his Dodge DeSoto...

...before a black van pulled past him, the side door sliding open and two men in black masks pulled a loudly protesting Spike inside.

Just for a moment, Buffy caught a glimpse of a familiar face as the door closed, before the van roared off down the street.

It was Mr. Trick, giving her two thumbs-up, an arrogant look of victory on his face.

"Willow," Oz said simply, before racing back into the abandoned factory to look for his girlfriend. Faith quickly followed after him, and they headed down into the basement where the Rosenberg girl was waiting; bound and gagged, but more or less okay

Outside, Angel finally stopped Buffy from running after the van. "Buffy. It's too late, they're gone! We'll have to deal with Spike another time."

Out of breath and feeling infuriated, the blonde Slayer nonetheless finally acknowledged her undead lover was right. _Damn it, I hate it how he always makes so much sense these days..._

"Another time." Buffy repeated the words venomously, staring after the van and feeling strangely cheated. "Another time, Spike, I promise you..."


End file.
